“Over the past 30 years, Olam has built a valuable portfolio of businesses that have achieved leadership positions. By simplifying our businesses across 2 distinct and coherent groups, each with a clear vision for profitable growth, it sharpens our focus and provides opportunities to capitalise on key market trends, while continuing to leverage the benefits of the Olam Group.”

Sunny Verghese
Co-Founder and Group CEO

• Olam Food Ingredients

  Our customer offer spans products, ingredients and category solutions created from the five most sought-after agricultural products.

• 

  Olam Global Agri

  Olam Global Agri is a leader in food, feed and fibre in high-growth emerging markets with proven expertise and processing capabilities.

• 

  Olam International

  Provides stewardship, implements cross-cutting initiatives, drives key enablers and offers shared services across the operating groups.

  We want to leave the world better than we found it.

  That means re-imagining global agriculture through our operational ability to make material impact on improving farmer livelihoods, increasing community well-being, and regenerating our living world.

  We recognise that we succeed or fail together which is why we have set ourselves an ambitious Purpose and why sustainability is a key enabler of our Strategic Plan; it’s a way of doing business, and it’s what consumers increasingly expect.

  Our goals and milestones are signposts along a continuous journey that is intended to strengthen our company as it strengthens the people we touch, and the communities and environment in which we operate.

  We’re guided by our Sustainability Framework to focus our efforts, and from which we can share what we’ve accomplished, what we’ve learned, and what’s left yet to do.

  Our revolutionary sustainability insights platform for agricultural supply chains, AtSource then provides customers with a single view across their supply chain sustainability parameters, as well as with insights into how to influence these elements for the better.

  The end-to-end metrics, action plans and corresponding narratives can be used by customers to meet sustainability requirements, build brand trust and confidence, report on sustainability initiatives and transform supply chains.

  Innovation and technology such as the Olam Farmer Information System (OFIS) and Olam Direct (OD) help us to collect data, improve transparency, and ultimately help the farmer with more information to improve their livelihoods as well as grow the volumes and quality of crops required by Olam and our customers.

  Each year we report against our progress and share learnings. In this way, we can help achieve our Purpose to Re-imagine Global Agriculture and Food Systems.

  Previous

  

  Healthy Soils

  Challenge: Protect soil and help restore degraded land.

  Degraded soil affects nearly 1/3 of the Earth’s land area, impacted in part by poor management practices, population pressures on the land, and use of expensive chemical fertilisers and labour-intensive organic nutrients. This results in enormous costs to the environment as well as to society’s social and economic value.

  Read More

  

  Water

  Challenge: Reduce water usage while improving yields.

  Half of the world’s population will live in water-stressed areas by 2025, due in large part to a changing climate and the demands of increased populations. Agriculture is the largest user of water, consuming 70% of all freshwater resources. Water isn’t neatly fenced by administrative or geographic boundaries, which means its uses are often challenged by interconnected and sometimes competing interests.

  Read More

  

  Reduced Waste

  Challenge: Feed more people and increase farmer incomes by reducing food waste.

  A third of the food currently produced never reaches our plates, and in the markets in which many of our supply chains operate as much as 40% of food is lost during harvest, drying, storage, and transport. These are particularly sobering facts considering estimates are that we’ll need 50% more food by 2030 to feed the world’s growing population.

  Read More

  

  Economic Opportunity

  Challenge: Farmers and people engaged in the agri and food production system can earn a decent income and are resilient to external shocks.

  The vast majority of the over 5 million farmers from whom we source crops, such as cocoa, coffee, cotton, and cashew operate farms on just 1 or 2 hectares in countries such as Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Indonesia, Turkey and Honduras. Combined with the vagaries of weather, infrastructure, and global market pricing, many of them operate on a fine line between success and failure with little capacity to adapt, let alone grow.

  Read More

  

  Safe and Decent Work

  Challenge: Provide and support safe workplaces that respect the rights of everyone.

  In addition to complying with all relevant laws and international agreements in our own operations, many of our supply chains are in emerging markets across highly rural areas, and can involve intermediaries and other third-parties, which makes eradicating labour issues much more complex.

  Read More

  

  Education and Skills

  Challenge: Farming communities and our workforce can improve their technical and vocational skills.

  Access to educational resources, as well as technical skills development is uneven if not wholly unavailable in many places around the world, which denies people the opportunity to improve their economic conditions. Needs can range from the basics of reading and writing to the operation of advanced machinery and application of management processes and planning. Every culture is different, as are communities.

  Read More

  

  Nutrition and Health

  Challenge: Improve farmer and employee wellness and longevity.

  Poverty, lack of health infrastructure and access to clean water and sanitation contribute to lowered life expectancies in many of the countries upon which we rely for core crops, which also correlates with farm productivity. Those with specific health issues, whether suffering a disease or exposed to episodic risks, such as pregnant women, are particularly vulnerable.

  Read More

  

  Diversity and Inclusion

  Challenge: all people are socially and economically empowered

  Explicit or implicit biases are present in every work environment, they can vary widely across geographies and cultures, and they often result from a complex combination of traditional power structures, categorisations of economic or ethnic class, and attitudes toward gender. Prohibiting any form of discrimination is the necessary framework for work opportunities and career advancement.

  Read More

  

  Climate Action

  Challenge: Reduce, mitigate and adapt to the impacts of changing weather patterns.

  Agriculture, forestry and other land use sectors account for almost a quarter of manmade global warming pollution, and its farmers, suppliers, processors, and broader communities often suffer its direct and indirect effects on livelihoods and health. Another key source of this challenge is processing, as well as transportation, both land and sea.

  Read More

  

  Healthy Ecosystems

  Challenge: Support and encourage biodiversity and effective land use.

  Every crop we grow, or source is embedded in a broader, complex and delicate ecosystem in which change to one factor intended to produce a positive outcome can have negative impacts on others, thereby creating biodiversity risks to the smallest bees and the largest apes and elephants. It’s made particularly challenging because most of those crops come from third-parties. Our vision is one of living landscapes where farmers and communities prosper within regenerated ecosystems.

  Read More

  

  Healthy Soils

  Challenge: Protect soil and help restore degraded land.

  Degraded soil affects nearly 1/3 of the Earth’s land area, impacted in part by poor management practices, population pressures on the land, and use of expensive chemical fertilisers and labour-intensive organic nutrients. This results in enormous costs to the environment as well as to society’s social and economic value.

  Read More

  

  Water

  Challenge: Reduce water usage while improving yields.

  Half of the world’s population will live in water-stressed areas by 2025, due in large part to a changing climate and the demands of increased populations. Agriculture is the largest user of water, consuming 70% of all freshwater resources. Water isn’t neatly fenced by administrative or geographic boundaries, which means its uses are often challenged by interconnected and sometimes competing interests.

  Read More

  

  Reduced Waste

  Challenge: Feed more people and increase farmer incomes by reducing food waste.

  A third of the food currently produced never reaches our plates, and in the markets in which many of our supply chains operate as much as 40% of food is lost during harvest, drying, storage, and transport. These are particularly sobering facts considering estimates are that we’ll need 50% more food by 2030 to feed the world’s growing population.

  Read More

  

  Economic Opportunity

  Challenge: Farmers and people engaged in the agri and food production system can earn a decent income and are resilient to external shocks.

  The vast majority of the over 5 million farmers from whom we source crops, such as cocoa, coffee, cotton, and cashew operate farms on just 1 or 2 hectares in countries such as Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Indonesia, Turkey and Honduras. Combined with the vagaries of weather, infrastructure, and global market pricing, many of them operate on a fine line between success and failure with little capacity to adapt, let alone grow.

  Read More

  

  Safe and Decent Work

  Challenge: Provide and support safe workplaces that respect the rights of everyone.

  In addition to complying with all relevant laws and international agreements in our own operations, many of our supply chains are in emerging markets across highly rural areas, and can involve intermediaries and other third-parties, which makes eradicating labour issues much more complex.

  Read More

  

  Education and Skills

  Challenge: Farming communities and our workforce can improve their technical and vocational skills.

  Access to educational resources, as well as technical skills development is uneven if not wholly unavailable in many places around the world, which denies people the opportunity to improve their economic conditions. Needs can range from the basics of reading and writing to the operation of advanced machinery and application of management processes and planning. Every culture is different, as are communities.

  Read More

  

  Nutrition and Health

  Challenge: Improve farmer and employee wellness and longevity.

  Poverty, lack of health infrastructure and access to clean water and sanitation contribute to lowered life expectancies in many of the countries upon which we rely for core crops, which also correlates with farm productivity. Those with specific health issues, whether suffering a disease or exposed to episodic risks, such as pregnant women, are particularly vulnerable.

  Read More

  

  Diversity and Inclusion

  Challenge: all people are socially and economically empowered

  Explicit or implicit biases are present in every work environment, they can vary widely across geographies and cultures, and they often result from a complex combination of traditional power structures, categorisations of economic or ethnic class, and attitudes toward gender. Prohibiting any form of discrimination is the necessary framework for work opportunities and career advancement.

  Read More

  

  Climate Action

  Challenge: Reduce, mitigate and adapt to the impacts of changing weather patterns.

  Agriculture, forestry and other land use sectors account for almost a quarter of manmade global warming pollution, and its farmers, suppliers, processors, and broader communities often suffer its direct and indirect effects on livelihoods and health. Another key source of this challenge is processing, as well as transportation, both land and sea.

  Read More

  

  Healthy Ecosystems

  Challenge: Support and encourage biodiversity and effective land use.

  Every crop we grow, or source is embedded in a broader, complex and delicate ecosystem in which change to one factor intended to produce a positive outcome can have negative impacts on others, thereby creating biodiversity risks to the smallest bees and the largest apes and elephants. It’s made particularly challenging because most of those crops come from third-parties. Our vision is one of living landscapes where farmers and communities prosper within regenerated ecosystems.

  Read More

  

  Healthy Soils

  Challenge: Protect soil and help restore degraded land.

  Degraded soil affects nearly 1/3 of the Earth’s land area, impacted in part by poor management practices, population pressures on the land, and use of expensive chemical fertilisers and labour-intensive organic nutrients. This results in enormous costs to the environment as well as to society’s social and economic value.

  Read More

  

  Water

  Challenge: Reduce water usage while improving yields.

  Half of the world’s population will live in water-stressed areas by 2025, due in large part to a changing climate and the demands of increased populations. Agriculture is the largest user of water, consuming 70% of all freshwater resources. Water isn’t neatly fenced by administrative or geographic boundaries, which means its uses are often challenged by interconnected and sometimes competing interests.

  Read More

  

  Reduced Waste

  Challenge: Feed more people and increase farmer incomes by reducing food waste.

  A third of the food currently produced never reaches our plates, and in the markets in which many of our supply chains operate as much as 40% of food is lost during harvest, drying, storage, and transport. These are particularly sobering facts considering estimates are that we’ll need 50% more food by 2030 to feed the world’s growing population.