Food and beverage sector already feel impact of lack of water

Food and beverage producers are faced with escalating costs in the face of worsening pollution and water shortage, which can affect the growth of these companies, according to report from Ceres, the Boston group that brings together investors with more than $ 13 trillion in assets. According to the document, water scarcity impacts companies in regions plagued by drought, as Brazil and California (USA).
Although some producers come adopting measures to manage the risk of water shortages, most comes falling behind, according to Ceres. "It's definitely a growing threat," said Nick Martin, head of sustainable practices in Antea Group, who is also an engineer and environmental consultant. "Now, she is being taken more seriously that there are maybe five or ten years".
Of the 37 publicly traded companies evaluated in the report, 91% cited water as a "material risk" in their financial documents. Water scarcity already impacts the balance sheets, interrupting operations and limiting growth.
In April, the CocaCola abandoned plans to build a bottling plant in northern India, where farmers fear the unconscionable use of groundwater and pollution. Cargill announced that fourth-quarter profit fall was influenced by drought that devastated pastures in the United States, used to create cattle.
Unilever unveiled have annual costs around $ 400 million with natural disasters linked to climate change, which led to the cutting of water supplies, raising the cost of food and reduced productivity.
Drought-related problems were discussed only 12 times in the transcripts of Conference calls on quarterly balance sheets analysed by Ceres in February. Half of the references came in response to questions from analysts. The most frequent discussions turned around the impacts on prices and supply chain caused by drought in Brazil and in the Western United States.
For almost half of the companies, the supervision of water was relegated to executives at least two levels below the ceo. Only 16% of companies have sustainable agricultural policies to deal with the water, being that PepsiCo and Unilever are "the strongest", according to the report.