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Tate & Lyle has announced a new regenerative agriculture programme aimed at helping corn growers in France farm more sustainably.

Developed in partnership with local cooperatives and Regrow Ag, the initiative will allow farmers to adopt practices that improve soil health and resilience to climate change while enabling the company to track environmental improvements across thousands of acres.

The programme involves three major farming partners – Armbruster Grande Cultures, Euralis Groupe Coopératif and Groupe Coopératif Maïsadour – representing growers in the northeast and southwest of France. Participating farmers will be encouraged to adopt methods such as low- and no-till farming to reduce soil disturbance, cover cropping to enhance soil quality and nitrogen management to cut reliance on synthetic fertilisers.

Tate & Lyle will use Regrow Ag’s AI-driven software platform to measure and monitor the environmental impact of these practices. Local agronomists will support farmers in entering data and using insights to inform farm planning, which will also feed into Tate & Lyle and its customers’ sustainability reporting.

Nick Hampton, CEO of Tate & Lyle, said: “Regenerative agriculture is at the heart of our approach to sustainability, because helping farmers to become more resilient to the impacts of increasing climate change related events also enables our customers to feed a growing population – a win-win".

He continued: "For businesses in the food chain, flooding, droughts and severe temperatures that affect harvests and the use of natural resources are a shared challenge. Through our more mature, science and tech-driven regenerative agriculture programmes in the US and China, we’ve demonstrated that these programmes can materially improve yield and crop quality for farmers and the businesses they supply."

"This new programme in France is about supporting farmers, and it also makes perfect business sense as it helps to make our supply chain more resilient.”

Anastasia Volkova, CEO and co-founder of Regrow Ag, highlighted: “Tate & Lyle’s leadership is helping accelerate the adoption of regenerative practices where it’s needed most: in Europe’s critical corn-growing regions. By pairing local agronomic expertise with credible, AI-powered measurement and monitoring, this programme is demonstrating how collaboration and data transparency can drive meaningful climate action across supply chains.”

French partners also emphasised the programme’s potential impact. Franck Camet-Lassalle, market development manager at Euralis, said the initiative would accelerate soil conservation practices among waxy corn producers and strengthen farm resilience. Christophe Bonno, CEO of Maïsadour, added that the programme aligns with their Ambition 2030 strategy and reflects a shared commitment to sustainable agriculture.

This new programme in France builds on Tate & Lyle’s existing regenerative agriculture initiatives, which support corn growers in the US and stevia producers in China.

The company maintains acreage equivalent to its annual corn purchases within these programmes, reinforcing its global commitment to sustainable sourcing.