Discover the positive impact your purchases have on communities and the environment.
Read about how Olam is working with partners to support farmer livelihoods, promote equality and improve environmental standards.
The dramatic blue crater of the Laguna de Ayarza is the defining feature of the Ayarza region in eastern Guatemala. The surrounding rich, volcanic soils provide perfect ground for producing exceptional coffees and support the livelihoods of local farmers, but a 6-month dry season leaves limited water available for processing.
Read moreRice is a staple food for much of the world’s population and production will need to nearly double by 2050 to meet demand. But it is also one of the most polluting crops, responsible for 10% of all global man-made methane emissions - a greenhouse gas 84x more potent than carbon dioxide - from the vegetation that naturally rots in flooded paddy fields.
Read moreOlam Coffee has launched ‘Coffee Kindergartens’ in four coffee communities in Guatemala providing safe spaces for children to play, learn and not work during the peak harvest period.
Read moreOn a tropical mountainside of the Frailesca region in Mexico, farmers are planting new coffee saplings and forest trees.
Read moreofi cocoa business is working in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, Mondelēz International, Partnerships for Forests and Instituto Humanize, to halt deforestation and restore degraded land in the Brazilian state of Pará, which has the country’s highest rate of deforestation.
Read moreBeekeeping has an important role in generating and expanding the income of small-scale cashew farmers. Hives are placed in the orchards in return for bee pollination services, not only boosting cashew nut yields, but the farmer’s income also benefits from the sale of honey and wax.
Read moreIn the mills on our Zambia estates, new systems have been introduced to conserve energy and water at every stage of the processing journey – from bean separation all the way through fermentation and drying…
Read more5% of the coffee produced in Nicaragua is grown in and around Lake Apanàs - a man-made watershed sitting at 1,200 meters in the Jinotega hills – the country’s primary coffee region.
Read moreIn the coffee growing region of Matas de Minas in Brazil, Olam has been working to improve sanitation and access to safe drinking water.
Read moreOlam’s first sustainability programme to qualify for Infinity status is a circular coffee economy model that will deliver a triple positive impact in the coffee value chain; improving economic opportunity and environmental conservation from producers and communities in Peru, to consumers in the Netherlands.
Read moreOlam Cocoa’s first Infinity status project in Ghana uses long-term, community-based solutions to tackle deforestation. A model providing economic incentives to local farmers and communities delivers a triple positive impact by protecting and restoring the local landscape, improving agricultural practices and boosting economic opportunities for local farmers.
Read moreDuring the harvest season of 2017, children under the age of 16 were discovered picking coffee on many farms in Jaén Province of Peru.
Read moreThe rich mix of volcanic soil of the Isale region in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and plentiful moisture fed through from the Great Lakes, provides fertile ground for happy, healthy coffee trees.
Read moreLike his parents before him, Diofanor has always worked as a coffee farmer. Everything he knew about coffee – from sowing to post-harvest - he learned from the traditional methods of farming passed down to him.
Read moreThe waste water generated from the wet-milling process – when the bean is separated from the coffee fruit - is rich in organic matter, but is often discharged into local water sources, many of which are used for drinking water.
Read more“With the Flor do Café project I learned about coffee quality and by that I added value to my product, through selective harvesting, the right use of products at the right time to control pests and diseases within safety standards.
Read moreWith only two harvests a year, the off-season is a typically lean period for the 5,000 Ghanaian households who depend on cashew as their sole means of income.
Read morePneumonia is a leading cause of childhood mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa and along with other preventable diseases, not only affects individual health but families’ livelihoods, and broader agricultural development.
Read moreThere’s a surprising link between these coffee bushes on Olam’s Milano plantation in Brazil, and the chickens from a local farm. They have both grown up on a bed of coffee husks.
Read moreFor farmers in the Quindío region of Colombia, a coffee education is proving a popular way of boosting livelihoods.
Read moreAt the Bynekere Estate in Karnataka, India, coffee farmers are reaping higher quality beans – with the corresponding income potential from it - by simply reducing post-harvest mistakes.
Read moreofi’s Women on the Roads for Hazelnuts program works with female seasonal migrant workers in the four main sourcing regions to provide training on labor rights, gender equality, first aid and basic healthcare.
Read moreWhile improved yields, income and livelihoods for rural farmers are directly linked to Good Agricultural Practice training amongst other things, on the other hand, these extended training periods are proving to be a huge sacrifice on the farmers financially and time spent away from their farms.
Read more50-year-old Antonio Benedito Sucamela is a typical cashew farmer from the Mogovala District in the Nampula Province of Mozambique and one of 51 beneficiaries in his farmer group of the Olam Cashew Farmer Bonus Scheme.
Read more“I’ve been farming for 20 years in Egypt and working with Olam for the past two seasons. During this period, myself and fellow farmers have been able to reduce water consumption, better control fungal diseases, increase our yield and drastically reduce waste during harvest which helped increase our overall productivity." Mohamed Ali, onion farmer, Western Desert, Egypt.
Read moreThe start to a new year can mean new resolutions, new ventures, or time for a change. For cashew farmers in Mozambique, it marks fresh hopes for the beginning of a new crop season.
Read moreFor the novice gardener amongst us, the subject of pruning can bring a sense of dread – we’ve heard from all the experts that we’ll get more flower power as a result, yet can’t bring ourselves to take that all-important first snip, for fear of cutting off ‘the wrong bit’.
Read moreAlima Assane Mupeue works at Olam’s cashew processing factory in Monapo as a supervisor in the Peeling Section. She’s a mother of 8 and balances her work at the factory with managing her household.
Read moreofi works in partnership with the International Labour Organization (ILO) to establish summer schools as safe spaces for the children of migrant workers to play, learn and not work.
Read moreOutside of the harvest period, a typical hazelnut grower in the Black Sea region of Turkey will cultivate small plots of land by themselves, sometimes with the help of family members.
Read moreMalnutrition is a major problem for cashew farming communities in Côte d’Ivoire. Across the country, around one in five children under the age of five are stunted; a serious condition caused by chronic malnutrition that prevents children from reaching their physical and cognitive potential. In July 2020, Olam took part in a massive public health drive, reaching hundreds of thousands of children with nutritional support.
Read moreThe pruning practices that Angélica demonstrates on her 14-hectare coffee farm in Copán, Honduras, have helped her coffee yields grow by 70% over the last two years.
Read moreIn the central province of Daklak in Vietnam, coffee farmers have boosted their economic prospects by securing additional sources of income.
Read moreIn Côte d’Ivoire, our extension officers started working with 13,000 farmers through 40 cooperatives to provide high-yielding, climate-resilient coffee seedlings from dedicated nurseries.
Read moreAs a highly water-intensive crop, onions require large quantities for irrigation in the field, which in drought-prone regions in particular, like California, is far from sustainable.
Read moreFarmers in Vietnam’s Dak Lak province have a whole new mindset to approaching safety at work, since Olam implemented a sustainability programme there in 2016. To date, since the programme began, there have been zero reported accidents or incidents resulting from farm practices.
Read more49 year-old Ashraf Ibrahim, a truck driver on an onion farm, receives a blood sugar test at an Olam Spices healthcare facility in Egypt.
Read moreOld coffee trees have been given a second life through repurposing them as compost to grow new ones. As part of a rejuvenation project on two plots of Olam’s Milano plantation in Brazil, the removed trees are pulverised and then returned back to the field to feed newly planted bushes; coming full circle.
Read moreThese women are carrying out the meticulous process of hand-sorting the washed coffee beans - the final step in the coffee cleaning and sorting process - before they are graded.
Read moreThese schoolchildren from the rural community of Cartinha in Brazil, have just enjoyed a picnic lunch by the Rio de Onda on the Milano coffee plantation, where they’ve just been learning about the importance of water conservation from Olam’s agronomists.
Read more7 year-old Anthony Josuel Rivera Inestroza, a student at Juan Lindo Primary School in San Manuel, Honduras poses for a photo on his new playground. What was previously a disused shelter with a mud floor, has been reconstructed to provide the children with a purpose-built space for sport and recreation.
Read moreThere is no doubt that the coffee industry is growing constantly, but an unsavoury brew of climate change and low prices is putting off the younger generation from coffee farming.
Read moreCoffee farmer Emiliano Carrasco Vera, proudly shows off his healthy crop, which is thriving in the shade of the forest canopy. Over the last two years, he has planted 200 native and nitrogen-fixing leguminous tree species, including Inga – known commonly as ice-cream bean tree, Erytrina and Cedrela, amongst the coffee bushes on his farm.
Read moreAt the Bynekere Estate in Karnataka, India, coffee farmers are reaping higher quality beans – with the corresponding income potential from it - by simply reducing post-harvest mistakes.
Read moreVietnamese coffee farmers working with Olam have seen water consumption on their farms drop by 33% following the installation in 2016 of six pilot irrigation systems – and contributing to a significant drop in production costs.
Read more“I had never seen these animals before, but now I know and if they come to my farm, I just let them be. Olam taught me that they live just beside the mountain, near my farm, and sometimes we even hear them!”, said Mr. Aca, a Coffee farmer living near the habitats of Java hawk and Java gibbons.
Read moreOlam’s business strategy has always been about helping communities to produce the best produce as this also creates value for Olam and our customers.
Read moreOlam is committed to ensuring gender equality throughout our value chain – from our plantations and farms, to the processing units, offices and senior management. This includes wages, opportunity for promotion and training.
Read moreWorking on the ground at source allows us to actively pursue long-term relationships with farmers and suppliers based on responsible practices and trust. Something we have been doing successfully with coffee farmers in Vietnam.
Read moreSupporting social investments in communities is not only better for the farmers and their families, it’s better for customers. A great example is the primary school built in Jeannotkro, South Central Côte d’Ivoire.
Read moreAs part of Olam’s Strategic Energy Management Plan, designed to grow renewable energy across global operations, major energy saving initiatives have been implemented in Olam Spices’ onion and garlic processing plants in the US.
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