Asia’s major food retailers are falling short on setting and reporting methane reduction targets, raising questions about the sector’s commitment to controlling the potent greenhouse gas in meat, dairy and rice supply chains, a new study finds.
Gaps persist across key areas assessed by environmental group Mighty Earth, from acknowledging methane’s role in global warming to transparently reporting emissions, promoting alternative proteins and addressing methane from food waste.
The retailers assessed include DFI Retail Group and Sun Art Retail Group in China and Hong Kong, Walmart’s China operations, Japan’s Aeon and Seven & i Holdings, Singapore’s FairPrice Group, as well as South Korea’s Emart and Lotte Shopping.
None of these retailers have publicly disclosed methane emissions associated with their meat, dairy and rice products, the study found. They also have not acknowledged the gas as a major component of their climate footprint, or set reduction targets aligned with the Global Methane Pledge, a voluntary pact signed by over 155 countries that aims to reduce global methane emissions by at least 30 per cent from 2020 levels.
Methane is a short-lived but highly potent greenhouse gas, about 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Globally, livestock agriculture is responsible for roughly 32 per cent of human-caused methane emissions.
Mighty Earth’s findings are part of the first regional benchmark of supermarkets’ role in tackling methane emissions in the food system – a growing climate concern in Asia as meat consumption rises.
Only Aeon showed a relatively strong performance compared to its competitors. The Tokyo-headquartered retailer ranked highest overall but scored just 20.5 out of a possible 100 points, highlighting what the report describes as a lack of ambition among the region’s retailers to mitigate the greenhouse gas.
While Aeon has acknowledged the climate impact of methane from livestock, it has yet to implement concrete measures to cut emissions.
Singapore’s largest supermarket chain, Fairprice Group, ranked last in the study, scoring zero across 20 indicators, and reflecting what the report described as a “total absence of action” on methane pollution and support for plant-based foods.
Eco-Business has reached out to all of the retailers featured in the study.
Fairprice said that Mighty Earth’s study does not capture the full scope of its responsibilities as the nation’s largest retailer, including maintaining food security in a nation that imports over 90 per cent of its food.
The company has a 2045 net zero target for Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions, and is in the process of developing its Scope 3, or full value chain, emissions reduction and reporting roadmap.
“Although we have not publicly reported on these efforts, we are in ongoing, active conversations with our ecosystem and NGO partners to tackle high-impact areas within our value chain where collective action will yield the most results,” it said.
The company noted that it has a supply chain decarbonisation programme to help suppliers reduce their climate footprint, and is running active food waste reduction and donation programmes.
Fairprice has stocked plant-based meat alternatives since 2017 and sells 80 such brands.
DFI responded to Mighty Earth, expressing an interest in improving its score by providing additional information. This data did not lead to any changes in the company’s scores.
Meihua Piao, Mighty Earth’s Tokyo-based campaigner, said that supermarkets can play a key role in shaping consumer diets by expanding plant-based product offerings and setting targets to increase their share of sales.
The report recommends retailers aim for a 60 per cent plant-based and 40 per cent animal-based protein sales ratio by 2030.
If alternative proteins reach 11 per cent of the global protein market by 2035, greenhouse gas emissions could fall by an amount comparable to fully decarbonising the aviation sector, the report noted.
The report warned that methane emissions from food production are becoming an increasingly urgent issue in Asia.
In 2023, the region emitted an estimated 4.58 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent methane emissions, according to the analysis. Asia also produces and consumes about 90 per cent of the world’s rice, a crop responsible for around 10 per cent of global human-caused methane emissions due to flooded paddy cultivation.
Meanwhile, demand for meat continues to grow rapidly. The Food and Agriculture Organization and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development project that meat and seafood consumption in Asia will rise 78 per cent by 2050.
