Introduction

This statement is made pursuant to section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. It constitutes the Bioline Agrosciences Ltd (the Company) slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ended 30 June 2020.

Our Organisation

Bioline AgroSciences Ltd produces and markets a wide range of invertebrate biological control organisms which are used for control of insect pests in a variety of crops. We are a global company, active in 30 different countries, with particular strength in Europe and North America. Our primary target crops are protected vegetables, ornamentals, soft fruits and berries. At Bioline AgroSciences Ltd we pride ourselves on providing the highest quality products and service in order to support growers in maintaining yield and quality of their produce.

We have around 100 staff based in the United Kingdom and, before confirming employment, thorough ‘right to work in the UK’ checks are carried out. This validation ensures that both UK citizens and any other nationalities have the appropriate documentation to be living with the United Kingdom and are, therefore, by definition, not knowingly the subject of any illegal acts of entry to the country.  Our staff are largely directly employed and generally not in any category which is seen to be vulnerable to modern slavery in this country, so our main focus is to ensure there are policies and due diligence procedures in place for our suppliers.

Our Supply Chain

The Company is committed to continuously improving its practices to identify and eliminate any slavery and human trafficking in its business and supply chains, and to acting ethically and with integrity in all its business relationships.

The Company uses a wide range of suppliers who provide agency staff, supply goods for production and sale and support our operations.  We shall only allow inclusion on to our supplier list if contractors and suppliers have signed a declaration that they are not involved in modern slavery or human trafficking and are fully compliant with the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Policies

The Company has a number of policies which underpin our approach to tackling the risk of modern slavery in our supply chain. These include:

 

Due Diligence

We continue to monitor all suppliers, in particular those we believe present high modern slavery risks in our supply chain. This includes those who support the procurement of goods and materials for sale, particularly where those goods and materials are acquired from suppliers in high risk countries.

All suppliers which we class as high risk must:

The Procurement and H&S departments are responsible for assessing the information submitted by suppliers and contractors. Should the latter fail to provide the information requested or to meet the Company’s expectations, the Company will take appropriate action. This may include not entering into a relationship or suspending/terminating our relationship with a supplier or asking a supplier not to procure goods from a particular factory.

Training

We will continue to provide advice and guidance to those teams who have direct responsibility for relevant supply chains. Our management will participate in modern slavery training.

Looking Ahead

Over the course of the next financial year we will continue to enhance our procedures to help us identify, prevent and mitigate any risks of modern slavery or human trafficking in relation to new and existing suppliers and in relation to our own operations.

Approval

The Senior Management Team shall take responsibility for implementing this policy statement and its objectives and shall provide adequate resources and investment to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place within the organisation.

This statement has been formally approved by the Chief Executive Officer of the Company.

 

Ludwik Pokorny

Chief Executive Officer

Bioline Agrosciences

01 November 2020