Food & Beverage Asia June/July 2020

8
NEWS
AAK reports sustainability progress
AAK has released its Sustainability Report
for 2019. The report outlined ambitions,
activities and achievements within the
five focus areas of the company’s model
for sustainable growth – Our Customers,
Our Suppliers, Our Plant, Our People, and
Our Neighbours.
Johan Westman, President and CEO of
AAK, said, “We continue to see strong
progress within our sustainability activities
and in our contributions towards the
UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Significant improvements have been made
within our raw material supply chains and
with regards to resource efficiency in our
operations.
Additionally, we have continued to create
solutions that are good for both people and
our environment, for example, AkoPlanet,
our portfolio with solutions for plant-based
foods.”
An AAK achievement during 2019 has
been the increase of women involved
in the company’s direct shea sourcing at all production sites, and during 2020 we
programme in West Africa. The programme will do the same for our raw materials
now involves more than 230,000 women, a in order to identify the overall climate
72% increase compared to 2018. AAK has roadmap for the future. This and all other
also increased the impact of smallholder achievements that we share in our report
livelihoods in its palm supply chains by are results of a tremendous amount of
strengthening collaborations with partners dedication from AAK colleagues and
in Malaysia and Mexico.
collaboration partners around the globe.” ■
Furthermore, AAK
has reduced its
environmental impact
by decreasing the
company’s energy and
water consumption, and
greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions per processed
unit raw material.
Anne Mette Olesen,
Chief Strategy and
Sustainability Officer,
AAK, added, “Another
key achievement has
been to initiated climate
change risk assessments AAK Sustainability Report 2019
Givaudan announces divestiture of processed and grated cheese business
Givaudan has entered into an agreement
to divest its processed and grated cheese
business to St. Paul Group, a cheese
specialist with premises in Belgium and
the Netherlands.
Dieter Kuikl, CEO of St. Paul Group,
commented, “We are delighted with this
transaction as it represents an attractive
opportunity to further build St. Paul’s
customer base in ready meals, snacks and
processed food. In addition, St. Paul will
now also be able to offer a wider range of
products and applications.”
The processed and grated cheese business
acquired from Vika BV contributed 13.5
million Swiss francs (US$13.9 million) to
Givaudan’s flavour division sales in 2018.
Givaudan will retain the majority of the
Vika BV business acquired in 2017, and
continue to offer cheese powder solutions,
vegetable and meat fonds and stocks
as part of its natural dairy and savoury
product portfolio.
Louie D’Amico, President, Flavour Division,
Givaudan, concluded, “With the sale of our
processed and grated cheese business, we
aim to strengthen the focus on our core
business and continue to drive long-term
shareholder value. We truly appreciate
the contributions of our processed and
grated cheese business employees, and
look forward to working with the St. Paul
team to ensure a successful handover.” ■
FOOD & BEVERAGE ASIA JUNE / JULY 2020