People, Safety and Well-Being

At Cargill, safety has and always will be our number one priority. We strive to foster a work environment that is both physically and psychologically safe and we emphasize the importance of safety every single day. When the Covid-19 pandemic began, we took an early decision to send our employees to work from home before it became mandatory. Throughout its course, we have prioritized employee safety and psychological well-being, providing virtual resilience courses, flexible working hours and around the clock support.

Seafaring is one of the most dangerous jobs that exist and 2020 was a testimony to this. Disruptions due to the Covid-19 pandemic left hundreds of thousands of seafarers stranded onboard ships beyond the expiry of their contracts, in some case for several months. The anxiety and isolation of spending extended periods of time away from their families combined with the risk of accidents and often poor conditions escalated concerns about crew mental well-being, resulting in a humanitarian crisis at sea.

Cargill worked closely with our shipowners and partners to plan, facilitate and accelerate crew changeovers. Internally, we created and implemented a tool to track and manage the length of time crews have been onboard our vessels. We also played a lead role in the Global Maritime Forum’s Crew Change Task Force, preparing and drafting the Neptune Declaration which was launched in January 2021.

As a vessel charterer, Cargill is not responsible for the management, maintenance or crewing of the ships we operate. Nonetheless, we try to influence our partners and encourage safe practices and ethical treatment of their crews by selecting owners of modern and well-maintained vessels, partnering with owners to encourage best practices, and setting clear expectations through our Supplier Code of Conduct. We know from experience that better quality ships improve crew safety and we continue to use better and higher rated vessels.