Progress in sustainability reporting - a South African food production sector perspective

Abstract

The first three industrial revolutions created improvements to the way humans live their lives but is followed by a stark realisation of the need to implement these technological improvements sustainably. The agricultural industry, in particular, created a host of new environmental and social problems. Corporate reporting is fundamental to the concept of accountability. The study sought to examine the level of ESG disclosures of JSE-listed food producer sector companies over the last decade as higher levels of non-financial reporting was required by the JSE after March 2010. An evaluation framework was developed and a qualitative content analysis was employed to rank the level of ESG reporting over a 10-year period from 2010 to 2019 (both years included). The results found that great progress was made from the start to the end of the decade, however, the reason for the progress is likely due to changes in JSE reporting requirements, thus supporting agency theory and advocating for such requirements in other jurisdictions. The paper is, however, based purely on evaluation of publicly available annual reports and further research could be conducted to determine this sector’s real approach towards sustainable ESG practices and whether this is truly what is reflected in the reporting.