Global food and agri-business Olam International has achieved 100% traceability of directly-sourced cocoa across its global supply chain.
In its annual report the firm, whose supply chain includes 12% of the world’s cocoa bean supply, said it could trace the beans back to an individual farm or community.
The company also outlined how it had navigated the pandemic to deliver robust operational financial performance in 2020, and executed the group’s Strategic Plan to drive sustainable growth.
The company said it had continued to make progress with its aim of “Re-imagining Global Agriculture and Food Systems”.
As part of this strategy, over 2020, the company helped 773,000 smallholders receive sustainability support with more than 60 customer and NGO partnerships, and a further 2.6 million farmers in India are benefiting from its farmer services platform AgriCentral.
It committed more than $7m of in-kind and financial support, benefiting over 11.5 million people across 33 countries during Covid-19.
Sunny Verghese, co-founder and group CEO of Olam, said 2020 was one of the organisation’s strongest ever years despite the pandemic, with operational earnings growth of 36% to S$677.8m.
“We also made significant progress on our transformational reorganisation plan to unlock and illuminate the current value of our business and develop new strategic pathways that drive sustainable growth for the group,” said Verghese.
Over the year, the group acquired a US-based chilli pepper business, as well as greenfield investments for manufacturing soluble coffee in Brazil and dairy ingredients in New Zealand.
☛ Want to stay up to date with the news? Sign up to our daily bulletin.