Food & Beverage Asia December 2020/January 2021

ON THE TABLE 35
Photos credit: Olam Food Ingredients
Olam Direct was developed in 2016/17 to provide smallholder farmers with
a platform to sell their products while offering greater transparency and
traceability to support more sustainable sourcing in the agri supply chain
AtSource, Olam’s sustainability insights platform, is currently providing roughly 500,000
farms with sustainability support, including access to training
production of legal and deforestation-free
coffee. At the same time, this enables
participating companies to reduce their
risks of sourcing from the National Park,
while supporting solutions in priority
areas.
“TRANSPARENCY KEY IN DRIVING
CHANGE”
Earlier in January this year, Olam
reorganised its diverse business portfolio
to create two new coherent operating
groups – Olam Global Agri (OGA) and
Olam Food Ingredients (OFI) – that are
positioned for further growth in line
with key consumer trends and market
opportunities. Particularly the latter, it
offers sustainable, natural, value-added
food products and ingredients so that
consumers can enjoy the healthy and
indulgent products they love.
OFI consists of Olam’s businesses of
cocoa, coffee, edible nuts, spices and
dairy. It has built a global value chain
presence including its own farms, farmgate
origination and manufacturing
facilities. OFI also partners with customers,
leveraging its portfolio of on-trend food
products, to co-create solutions that
anticipate and met changing consumer
preferences as demand increases for
healthier food that is traceable and
sustainable. For instance, where spices
can replace salt or sugar; where nuts can
replace animal derived proteins, or where
dairy products can be fortified further so
that consumers can get maximum nutrition
and taste, at minimal cost to the planet.
Mathieson elaborated: “To achieve this
requires attention to every aspect of the
production process, from understanding
what consumers want and how they live,
to ensuring our production techniques,
mechanisms and supply chain are as
sustainable as possible. You have to look
at the big picture and consider all the
factors from the first to the last mile of
the supply chain. For us, creating and
maintaining a successful and sustainable
food system relies on building an onground
presence with our suppliers and
farmers, high and low tech across the
supply chain, and trust and collaboration
at all levels of the system.”
The first mile is where most sustainability
pain points occur, he pointed out, as the
farmer base is usually remote, highly
fragmented, and most farmers have low
literacy rates with little or no access to
technology, poor infrastructure, and limited
financing facilities. On the other hand,
the supply chain is complex with multiple
intermediaries in play.
“We estimate that across its five business
units – cocoa, coffee, nuts, spices and dairy
– OFI is sourcing directly and indirectly
from 3.5 million smallholders. Of these, OFI
is providing around 500,000 farmers with
sustainability support including training in
good agricultural practices, access to inputs
like fertiliser, healthcare and education.
Of course, scaling that is the biggest
challenge,” he added.
Driving progress in this first mile is
through digital innovation, where
Mathieson reported that the group has
been able to facilitate “positive change”
through technology such as AtSource and
Olam Direct. He explained that OFI was
increasingly able to transact with farmers
who were hard to reach, and provide
educational text message outreach with agri
advice, or more recently COVID-19 health
advice.
He said: “Olam Direct, for example,
empowers farmers to get prices and
FOOD & BEVERAGE ASIA DECEMBER 2020 / JANUARY 2021