ice-cream business to Åhus Glass AB and implementing the rationalization programmes. Annual Reports in pdf format, an. Internet version of the financial
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RAISIO GROUP 2003Raisio Group 1 Chief ExecutiveÔs review 2 Vision, strategy and values 4 Environment and social responsibility .. 6 REVIEW OF BUSINESS AREASRaisio Group Business Sectors .. 13 Raisio Chemicals .. 14 Raisio Nutrition . 18 Raisio Life Sciences .. 24 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS Report of the Board of Directors 29 Income statement .. 34 Balance sheet 35 Source and application of funds 36 Accounting principles .. 37 Notes to the accounts . 38 Risk management . 45 Financial indicators .. 46 BoardÔs proposal for thedisposal of profit .. 47 AuditorsÔ report . 47 Statement of the Supervisory Board .. 47 SHARES, SHAREHOLDERS ANDGOVERNANCEShares and shareholders . 49 Share indicators 54 Investment analysis and IR contact 55 Corporate governance 56 Supervisory Board 59 Board of Directors and Auditors 60 Executive Committee 62 Glossary . 64 Contact information . 65 PicturesNiko Levo is one of the pupils at Tahvio primary school. The school is located near Raisio Group headquarters and cooperates closely with Raisio Group. . 7 Group of Raisio NutritionÕs employees: Pauliina Karke (front right), Outi Suovanen, Tapio Tamminen, Raila Ilmonen, Auli Ketonen, Jyrki Aalto, Irma Tervonen and Kirsi Koskinen. . 11 Cristina Prosperini works forDiffchamb in Italy. 26 Pasi Aakula is a Raisio Groupshareholder and contract farmer. .. 49 The Annual General Meeting of Raisio Groupwill be held on 26 March 2004. The picture is from the 2003 AGM. . 56 This Annual Report has been printed on G-Print paper. Raisio Chemicals paper chemicals have been used in the manufacturing.
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1Raisio Group is a growing international industrial group whose operations are divided into three business sectors: Raisio Chemicals, Raisio Nutrition and Raisio Life Sciences.Raisio Chemicals serves the paper industry globally, supplying it with functional paper chemicals and chemical concepts. It is one of the worldÕs leading manufacturers of paper latex, specialty chemicals and starch binders. Raisio Nutrition comprises the Food, Animal Feeds and Malt business areas, while Raisio Life Sciences produces stanol ester, the Benecol ingredient that helps to reduce cholesterol. The other important pillar of Raisio Life Sciences is food diagnostics. In the future, Raisio Nutrition and Raisio Life Sciences will be concentrating more and more on special expertise in well-being. Raisio Group employs some 2,700 people, 45 per cent of them abroad. It has production units in31 locations in 18 countries. The Group also has sales offices all over the world. The GroupÕs head office is in the town of Raisio in southwest Finland, and there are production plants in eight other locations in Finland.The free shares of the parent company, Raisio Group plc, are quoted on the Helsinki Exchanges Main List under the food industry and its restricted shares on the I List. The company has some 47,000 shareholders.KEY FIGURES20032002Turnover, EURm 860.5843.1Operating result, EURmÐ14.320.6Result before extraordinary items, EURm Ð27.29.3Return on investment, % Ð1.84.5Return on equity, % Ð10.92.4Equity ratio, %32.234.4Cash flow from business operations, EURm77.045.4Earnings per share, EUR Ð0.160.03Cash flow from business operationsper share, EUR0.470.27Equity per share, EUR1.171.41Market value, EURm205.5189.0
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Chief ExecutiveÕs Review In terms of business performance, 2003 fell more or less into two parts. The first half of the year was extremely difficult for all three business sectors, Raisio Chemicals, Raisio Nutrition and Raisio Life Sciences. Some corrective measures had already been taken the previous year, but these gathered speed during the spring and the autumn. In terms of operations, the last two quarters indeed began to show indications of improvement for Raisio Chemicals. However, non-recurring costs related to rationalization programmes weakened the results. We had greater success than anticipated in reducing working capital and improving cash flow, which made it possible to maintain solvency level despite thenegative result.Implementing the strategy drawn up by Raisio Group in 2001proved to be more challenging than we expected. The successfulintegration that followed the Latexia acquisition in 2002 and newentries into the growing markets for paper chemicals in China and food diagnostics in Europe were important strategic steps forward. There was also divestment of some non-core business activities. The recession that has continued in the paper industry, the tardiness of rationalization in margarine production and the slowness of the regulatory processes in functional foods weakened growth and financial performance, thus undermining future investment potential.At the beginning of 2004, the Raisio Group Board initiated thepreparation of a new strategy based on a more focused approach. We plan to develop Raisio Group as a growing, profitable and innovative food and animal feed company that isoriented towards the life sciences. This means that Raisio hasalready initiated evaluation of restructuring alternatives, including the possibility of the divestment of Raisio Chemicals or listing itseparately on the stock exchange. Discussions have already been started with a number of companies in the chemicals sector. This sort of restructuring would give Raisio Chemicals the opportunity to grow and internationalise still further. Raisio has strong traditions of contributing to Finnish well-being.As a diversified processor of grain, oil plants and potatoes, Raisiois able to respond to the expectations of the Finnish consumerfor safe, healthy, easy to use and tasty food. Consumer confidence in Finnish food is also reflected in RaisioÕs Animal Feeds business through Finnish livestock production. Innovative product develop-ment, strict quality control and close cooperation with customers are the keys to the success of Raisio Nutrition.It seems to me that in the future, Raisio will have the opportunity to extend its grain and oil plant expertise in the Baltic region. The margarine factory completed near Moscow in early 2004 will provide us with a more cost-effective route to the growth centres in Russia where the Raisio trademarks are already wellestablished. PolandÕs membership of the European Union will 2Strategic reassessment is on stream.Raisio has strong traditions of contributing toFinnish well-being.Food and animal feed businesses have growth potential in the Baltic region.Market for functional ingredients and food diagnosticsare global and growing rapidly. Profitability and customer satisfaction are RaisioÕs basic targets for the future, too.
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open up new opportunities for Raisio Polska Foods in the UnionÕs internal market. The decision has been taken to deepen sales and marketing cooperation with the Swedish company Cerealiain both Sweden and Finland. Expanding cooperation in the Balticregion is the logical next step.The primary target market for Raisio Food and Animal Feed busi- nesses is the Baltic region. For Raisio Life Sciences, on the other hand, there is a great deal of scope on global markets. At themoment, however, the focus of both functional food ingredients and food diagnostics is in Europe. The markets for functional foods are growing, especially in Europe. Products enriched with the cholesterol-lowering ingredient of Benecol have already spreadall over Europe. Last year, 13 new Benecol products that had received official approval were put on the market. I firmly believe that this good progress will continue and that last yearÕs efforts will start paying off. The other area of organic growth in Raisio Group is food diagnos-tics, where the first investments were made in 2003. The GroupÕs comprehensive expertise throughout the entire food chain, from the acquisition of raw materials via the production process to the supermarket shelves, provides an excellent basis for expanding our diagnostics business. In the future, the emphasis is going tobe on developing rapid testing methods.Finnish industry is going to face increasingly stiff competition in the future, even though we have recently been at or near the top of the table in many international comparisons. Even without EU enlargement, Raisio Group would be in a situation where wehave to reorganize the structure of the Group and strengthen ourcompetitiveness. We have to concentrate on those business operations where we have a competitive edge and in which wehave special expertise. We also need to be able to commercialise this expertise and our innovativeness. Consequently, I feel it is important that we have got a good start with our strategy work and that we are prepared for structural changes.Despite the fact that fundamental changes are indeed beingplanned in Raisio Group strategy and structure, the basic targets,profitability and customer satisfaction, will remain. Long-term part- nerships and close cooperation with customers will enable us to generate success on both sides. At the same time, the substantialrationalization programmes that have already been implementedand the concentration of business operations that is now being planned will help us to achieve our profitability targets.2003 was a demanding year. I want to take this opportunity of thanking the personnel for the good work they have put in. The current year is likely to bring even more important changes that will open up new opportunities for Raisio Group and its personnel to continue to develop Raisio as a specialist in well-being. I believe that with the new strategic guidelines, Raisio Group will generateincreasing added-value for customers and other stakeholders.Rabbe Klemets3
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Vision, strategy and values VISION AND STRATEGY 2001Ð2003Raisio Group vision and strategy were outlined in 2001. Accord-ing to its vision, Raisio Group is a major food and animal feed company operating in the Baltic region, which is growing into a leading international life science oriented chemical company in selected key areas. According to its strategy, Raisio Group is seeking strong growth and improvements in profitability by developing its operations, and through investment and company acquisitions. All three of its main business areas, Raisio Chemicals, Raisio Nutrition and Raisio Life Sciences, aim to be among thetop three companies in their selected market area.Financial targets are strong growth, return on investment of 12% and an equity ratio of over 30%.REASSESSMENT OF VISION AND STRATEGYDespite the measures that have been taken, the growth and profitability targets set in 2001 have not been reached. The growth of the Raisio Group chemicals business has been held back by various factors including the global slump in demand for paper. Group profitability has also been weakened by a number of things, such as the one-off costs incurred by the rationalization programmes and delays in transferring margarine production.In autumn 2003, the Raisio Group Board decided to reassessthe vision and strategy drawn up in 2001. The Board took the view, that for Raisio to develop favourably in the long-term operations need to be focused more clearly. This will ensure all three business sectors the conditions in which they can grow andprosper. As an immediate measure, the Board decided to evaluate various options for restructuring the Group, including the divestment of Raisio Chemicals. Listing Raisio Chemicals on the stock exchange is another alternative being considered. The final decision is expected to be taken in the second or third quarter of 2004. CORNER STONES OF THE NEW STRATEGYPlanning of the new Group strategy is based on expertise in well- being, something that Raisio has with regard to food and itsingredients, animal feeds and food diagnostics. The Board sees interesting opportunities for further restructuring in the Baltic region. Networking with other players in the sector and expansion in theregion are already under way. Expansion on a global scale and rapid growth are being sought through the ingredients and fooddiagnostics business sectors.The intention is to develop closer cooperation between RaisioNutrition and Raisio Life Sciences. This will open the way forcontinuing the further development of the chain from safe and traceable raw materials to tasty, safe products that the consumer wants.4Many of the goals of this vision and strategy have been achieved in 2002–2004: The acquisition of Latexia has been implemented and its operations integrated into Raisio Chemicals.The paper chemicals plants on the growing Chinese market have been completed.Several non-core activities including the ice-cream and almond paste businesses, the BioSafe lubricating oilbusiness and the associated company Valmet-Raisio have been divested.The decision has been taken to close down the unprofitableGrain Starch business in autumn 2004.Margarine production has been concentrated on plants inFinland and Poland.Raisio Nutrition has become established in the expanding margarine market in Russia by setting up a production plantnear Moscow. Closer cooperation has been started with the Swedish food company Cerealia AB.Raisio Life Sciences has acquired the Swedish food diag- nostics company Diffchamb AB.
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6ENVIRONMENTRaisio has defined its environmental, health and safety policy andgoals at Group level. As part of the management systems, the business sectors and separate business areas set their own targets for achieving these goals in line with Group policy. Environmental impact and society as a whole are prime consider-ations for Raisio Group in everything it does. At Group level the focus is on the following environmental, health and safety objectives:Developing safe, healthy and environmentally friendly products and manufacturing them by sparing natural resources.Preventing operational hazards and accident risks and theirconsequences.Reducing the amount and harmfulness of emissions and waste, as well as increasing waste recovery. Promoting open debate and interaction on environmental, health and safety issues among customers, authorities,stakeholders, personnel and the entire procurement chain.Environmental management Most Raisio Group business areas comply with the ISO 14001 standard on environmental management. In 2003, the whole ofRaisio Nutrition received certification for its environmental activities in Finland and Raisio Chemicals received four new environmental management certificates. The aim of the Food Ingredients business at Raisio Life Sciences is to achieve corresponding readiness forcertification in Finland in 2004. Altogether, the various business areas at Raisio Group hold over forty ISO environmental and quality certificates. Raisio Group aims to ensure profitability in the long term and produce added value for shareholders, customers and other stakeholders through responsible, high-quality operations.Raisio is committed to the principles of sustainabledevelopment laid down by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). Furthermore, Raisio Chemicals has joined the chemical industryÕs Responsible Care programme. RaisioÕs ethical principles were confirmed in autumn 2003. In recognition of the social responsibility of its operations, Raisio shares were selected for the new Kempen/SNS SRI Index and the Ethibel Investment Register as an ethicallysound investment target.Environment and social responsibilityEnvironmental and social responsibility reporting is being developed in parallel with financial reporting according to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). RaisioÕs aim is to publish a sustainability report that follows the key elements of these GRI principles in 2006. Annualreporting will be extended as the creation of indicators and reporting systems proceeds. The environment and social responsibility report contained in the Annual Report is a summary of the larger Raisio Group report published on the Group web site www.raisiogroup.com. Raisio Chemicals will also publish its own separate environment, health and safety(EHS) report. TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING The environmental report contains information on subsidiaries in which Raisio Group has a shareholding of over 50%during the year under review and which actually haveproduction activities. The subsidiary Diffchamb is included in the report from the moment of acquisition, i.e. 1 April 2003. Comparison figures are presented according tothe organizational structures at the given time.The environmental report is limited to the environmental, health and safety aspects of the GroupÕs own business operations.Raisio Group has very few transport vehicles of its own. Most of its transportation is carried out in partnership with transport contractors. So far, no assessments have been made of the environmental loading of outsourced transport. By and large, the social responsibility report covers the personnel of the entire Group. For some of the indicators, development work on reporting is still in progress and figures are only given for personnel based in Finland.SCOPE OF THE REPORT
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m3/output in tonnes1.51.20.90.6 0.30000102 million m32.52.01.51.0 0.500399WASTE WATER m3/output in tonnes2.52.01.51.0 0.50000102 million m 35432 1 00399CONSUMPTION OF WATER 7Complying with environmental legislation The majority of the Raisio Group production plants in Finland thatrequire environmental permits submitted their applications in 2003. Finnamyl Ltd received its environmental permit decision in autumn 2003. There is no litigation in progress linked with environmental issues.Accidents and their prevention In 2003, three accidents occurred at Raisio Group sites in Raisio, but the consequences of these were relatively small.Raisio Group has very few transport vehicles of its own, so most of its transportation is carried out in partnership with transport contractors. In 2003, there were 6 transport accidents in which 5 people were injured. There was no environmental damageresulting from the accidents. So far, no assessments have been made of the environmental loading of outsourced transport. The units involved in the road transport of dangerous substances have appointed safety advisors who have passed the appropriate examinations.Environmental and safety investments Raisio Group spent around EUR 3.2 million (EUR 6.8 million) on environmental and safety investments in 2003. The most important investments were aimed at reducing emissions to air. Operating expenses related to waste treatment, conservation of water resources, prevention of air pollution and occupational safetytotalled about EUR 4.1 million (EUR 4.5 million).The important wastewater pre-treatment plant project in Raisio received EUR 1.2 million of environmental funding from theEuropean Union. The Town of Raisio is renovating its wastewater treatment plant so that it can use the carbon-rich wastewater fromRaisio Group food industry to remove nutrients from the wastewater at its own plant. The work on the Town of Raisio wastewater plant will be completed by summer 2004, after which Raisio Groupwill alter its own pre-treatment plant to meet the cooperation requirements. The total costs of the project will be EUR 7 million,of which Raisio Group will be contributing 20%.Significant environmental aspects and indicators The operations of Raisio Group generate only small amounts of environmental pollution locally. The most important eco-efficiency indicators are energy consumption and generation of waste.Raisio Group processes make use of electricity and heat energyand the Group purchases all its electricity and most of its heatenergy from outside suppliers. Pollution caused by outsourced energy suppliers has not been reported. The Group has facilities for treating wastewater, another important form of process waste, but also uses treatment plants belonging to its partners. It is impossible, indeed impractical, to calculate or estimate the water pollution caused by outside suppliers. Thus the volume of wastewater alone is used as an indicator. No continuous quantitative measurements are made of noise,odorous or dust emissions; these are only monitored by spot checks. This means that no continuous indicator data is available.Environmental risks are reduced by sustained improvements inconnection with investments and repairs. Regular measurements of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are made at certain plants to comply with the terms of the environmental permits.
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GJ/output in tonnes1.2 1.00.80.60.40.20000102 GJ2â400â000 2â000â0001â600â0001â200â000800â000400â00000399USE OF HEAT 5432 10000102 0399WASTE Recovered waste, in tonnesWaste for final disposal and hazardous waste, in tonnes Total amount of waste, % of output tonnes100â00080â00060â00040â000 20â00008EHS REPORTS FOR BUSINESS SECTORSRaisio Chemicals At Raisio Chemicals, quality and EHS issues were stronglyinfluenced in 2003 by the renewal of the ISO 9001:2000 standard and the need to rearrange the management systems to comply with the new standard. The aim is to integrate the ISO9001:2000 and ISO 14001 systems. In 2003, four Raisio Chemicals production plants received new ISO 14001 environ- mental certification. The management systems are used for continuous operational improvement and guidance in a moresustainable direction as far as the environment is concerned, while taking special customer requirements into account. The safetysystems have not been given certification but there is a strong focus on safety issues in all operations.In Raisio Chemicals product development, special attention ispaid to environmentally friendly products, and whenever possible, preference is given to renewable and environmentally sound rawmaterials and processes. Most Raisio Chemicals products arebased on renewable natural materials and derivatives of them. Nearly all products meet the eco-labelling criteria set for chemicalsin their particular product category and are approved for use in the manufacture of packaging for foodstuff. In both product and process development the most environmentally sound alternatives are opted and the precautionary principle is followed. More and more attention is being paid to the environmental impacts of printed products throughout their life cycle. The needto reduce energy consumption at the papermaking machine while using more economical processes and less raw material will affect the printability of the paper and its suitability for different end products. Environmental requirements for printing plates andprinting blankets, printing inks, wetting agents and additives, as well as for paper, are getting stiffer all the time. One of Raisio ChemicalsÕ long-term development projects has been to reduce the use of organic solvents in printing, but at the same time maintain the printability of the paper. The Future Printing Centre (FPC) has been collaborating with various partners on intensive development work aimed at responding to the ever-tightening requirements set for the printed media.Raisio Chemicals personnel have been encouraged to report Ônear-missÕ situations. Reporting was started in conjunction with the Safety 24h project. The project has been implemented jointly bythe Chemical Industry Federation of Finland, the Chemical WorkersÕ Union and other organizations related to the chemicals sector. The aim of the project is to find procedures that will achieve genuine and permanent improvements in risk prevention at the workplace. The Safety 24h project received an award for good practice from the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. In October 2003, Raisio Chemicals organized an open day atthe Lapua plant for local people and other interested parties. Visitors were briefed on a number of things including plant operations, chemicals used and possible hazards arising from operating procedures. They were also given a tour of the worksand the wastewater treatment plant. The event was aimed at increasing dialogue between the local community and the factory. One of the most important challenges for Raisio Chemicals is the European CommissionÕs proposal for new chemicals legislation. The proposal is progressing through the European Parliament and the Council of Europe and is expected to come into force in2006 at the earliest. Raisio Chemicals has taken an active part in various working groups making comments on the proposal and studying the impact of the regulation on its own and its customersÕ business. Raisio Chemicals has estimated that it will have to register around twenty chemicals as a result of the new regulation. A few substances will be subject to regulatory authorisation procedures. In terms of implementing the regulation, the biggest challenges will be involved with the regulatory procedures and the overall communication involved in the registration process and other obligations, as well as the need to renew corporatedata systems. All in all, Raisio Chemicals will incur extra costs of several million euros as a result of the implementation of the regulation.Raisio ChemicalsÕ quality and environmental goals for 2004 areto introduce a harmonized process for systematic monitoring of customer feedback, to expand the use of the Balanced Scorecard tool, to reduce accidents to below 2003 levels Ð Ôtarget zero level of accidentsÕ. Further goals are to provide continuous training for staff to increase environmental awareness, to crystallize and optimize World Class Manufacturing indicators and reports, to provide training for transport contractors, to develop worldwide quality and EHS guidelines and environmental auditing, and tocarry out safety rounds by Raisio Chemicals top management at each production site at least once a year. Raisio Nutrition Once the Milling, Margarine and Potato Processing business areas had constructed a joint ISO 14001 environmental manage-ment system in 2003, all Raisio NutritionÕs operations in Finland were brought within the scope of certified environmental and quality systems. At the same time, ISO 9001 was extended tocover Potato Processing, as well. Animal Feeds and the Malt business areas had already been covered earlier. The systems support the setting of environmental and quality targets for each of the business areas according to the principle of continuous improvement. Progress was made in 2003 on settingand monitoring health and safety targets on a broader scale.
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One of the most important environmental projects for Raisio Nutrition in 2003 was submitting separate environmental permit applications for each production plant to the authorities. Up tonow, most Raisio Nutrition production plants have not been required to hold a permit under the Environmental Protection Act because the direct impact of their emissions to air and waterfrom production has been rather small. According to the new legislation, however, IPPC-based permits (Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control) will be needed at most Raisio Nutritionplants in the future.The operations of Raisio Nutrition, which uses renewable sourcesof raw materials, generate only small amounts of environmentalpollution at the local level. Cultivated raw materials are, almost without exception, used in their entirety and generate minimal amounts of waste. Processes and environmental technology arechosen according to the best available technology (BAT) principle. The environmental impacts of the food and malt industry take place through the use of energy in processes and transport, and to a certain extent in packaging and other waste. Apart from the milling industry, water and wastewater also have a considerable impact.The most important environmental aspect in the Animal Feeds business area is the nutrient load derived from livestock manure.Optimizing the nutrients in the feed and having a good feed/gain ratio reduce the load produced per kilo of food and animal feed.In the procurement of grain and oil plants, two of the most important raw materials, the most significant environmental impacts are connected with farming inputs in primary production and transportation. The Quality Grain trademark system takes environ- mental issues into account as a part of quality management and the procurement process. Improvements have been made in theassessment of outside suppliers and the traceability of raw mate-rials throughout the supply chain.The three-year Foodchain research project, coordinated by theTechnical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) and MTT Agrifood Research Finland, was completed in 2003. The project studiedthe effects of different variables on the environmental impacts of food production through its entire life cycle. Raisio Group was involved in all three project sections, grain, cheese and potatoproducts. In the grain section, Elovena oat flake was the productwhose life cycle was studied. The environmental impact of the industrial processing of Elovena was surprisingly small in compari-son with primary production and with further treatment of the product in the home. The environmental impact was further reduced by the switch from fuel oil to biogas and natural gas inthe steaming process at the Raisio Nutrition Nokia plant.Sources of soy that has not been genetically modified arebecoming more limited and this has caused an increase in hexaneconsumption at the oil milling plant. New processing methodswere developed in 2003 and new absorption equipment was acquired in order to resolve this problem.In September 2003, the new EU regulations on approval pro-cedures, labelling and traceability of genetically modified products were published. The new regulations have been a long time inpreparation and the expanded and more focused legislation isexpected to sway consumer reaction in Europe more favourable towards genetically modified products. Raw materials for animalfeeds, such as soy bean meal, now also have to carry markings and will come within the scope of official controls, as well. In 2003, Raisio Nutrition still held back from using geneticallymodified raw materials in its products. As far as purchasing for2004 goes, it has been decided to remain with traditional unmodified soy, for the time being. However, depending on the way the final interpretation of the new EU regulations isapplied, it may well be that in future, some of the additives usedby Raisio Animal Feeds that are manufactured using microbes will be classified as genetically modified. This mainly applies toenzymes, vitamins and amino acids.The challenge for Raisio Nutrition in the future is going to be tomake health and safety targets and the measures necessary to achieve them a permanent integral part of management systems and practical operations.Tangible examples of the environmental measures now in progress include the improvement in refining of malting barley before soaking to reduce the amount of solid material in the wastewater, the project to improve separation of grease in wastewater fromthe margarine plant, the reduction in the phosphorus content in animal feeds and the project to make use of centrifuge slurry from potatoes as a binding agent for bio-fuel.Raisio Life Sciences The certified quality systems used by Raisio Benecol and Raisio Staest, which are part of the Raisio Life Sciences business sector, are in accordance with ISO 9001:2000. The system at Raisio Staest US will be certified early in 2004. Development work on the ISO 14001 environmental management system will continue with the aim of having the system ready for certification by the end of 2004. Work was completed on updating the quality management systems used in the food diagnostics companyDiffchamb, acquired in spring 2003, and certifying them in ac- cordance with ISO 9001:2000. The integration of environmentalreporting at Diffchamb is still in progress. The safety risks inherent in laboratory work were charted in collaboration with the Turku Institute of Occupational Health in 2003, as a new form of cooperation with stakeholders. During 2003, a large proportion of Raisio Life SciencesÕ Ingredi- ents personnel were awarded hygiene certificates. Production automation systems were renewed at Raisio.There has been a certain amount of networking among Finnish and international research groups over research and development in the ingredients business. Raisio Benecol took part in several public research projects and conducted its own joint researchprojects. One of the aims of these has been to study ways ofimproving the efficiency of recovery and reuse of by-products from Raisio Group processes. Process development studies thepotential for reusing waste products from production that can besupplied as by-products.According to the environmental policy approved by the RaisioGroup Board of Directors, Raisio Life Sciences is committed tokeeping environmental, heath and safety aspects as the basis for all its operations. Key aims are the prevention of accidents,making more efficient use of raw materials and reducing waste. One specific aim for 2004 is to reduce the loading on waste-water caused by production by 20% in relation to productionvolume. Another is for personnel to take part in occupational safety training and pass the relevant test to obtain theirÔoccupational safety cardÕ.9
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