Page 52 - Ameft Journal 2021/1

BEVERAGES
Coffee LENS: Olam’s journey towards sustainability
While meeting the demands of healthier food that’s traceable and sustainable, Olam Coffee launches ‘Coffee LENS’ (Livelihoods, Education and Nature at Scale), a program that aligns with the United Nation’s Sustai- nable Development Goals (SDGs) with commitments to improve livelihoods, communities and landscapes.
Olam announced its first formal su- stainability targets for 2025 across its global focusing on four priority areas to improve economic opportunity, ed- ucation and skills, climate action and ecosystems in the coffee sector. It is one of the foremost green coffee origin exporters in the world besides being industry-leading businesses of Cocoa, Edible Nuts, Spices and Dairy.
The strategy will be achieved through collaboration with partners – custo- mers, governments, financial institu- tions, multi-lateral agencies and NGOs – and builds on a decade of sustaina- bility experience, with over 60,000 coffee farmers across Africa, Asia and South America already receiving sustai- nability support from Olam Coffee.
Vivek Verma, Managing Director and CEO, Olam Coffee said: “While the coffee supply chain is highly fragmen- ted making direct access to farmers difficult, our sustainability ambitions have grown each year, promoting the importance of traceability, quality, pro- fitable farmers and living landscapes. Despite our collective efforts however, many of the complex challenges in cof- fee remain and are now compounded
(Source: Olam)
by COVID-19 imposed restrictions to markets and skilled labour squeezing incomes further.
“Our Coffee LENS strategy therefore, focuses our efforts on increasing the impact of what we are already doing through a more structured approach.
Through dynamic alliances and tools such as our insights platform AtSource and buying app Olam Directi, we aim to deliver these targets by 2025, creating visible and scalable impact. As a result, we will then be able to expand those targets further, re-imagining the future of coffee.”, added Vivek Verma.
Progress on Coffee LENS will be reported annually, tracked and sup- ported by data from the 100 economic, social and environmental metrics of AtSource.
While commenting on the Olam’s new strategy, Carlos Brando, Chairman of the Board, Global Coffee Platform (GCP) said “As a founding member of the Global Coffee Platform, Olam is among the leading facilitators of the coffee sector’s journey towards sustai-
nability.
Working direct-
ly with producers on the ground, Olam’s ambitious vision of a more resilient future for coffee, where farmers prosper,
communities thrive and landscapes are re-generated, complements GCP’s multi-stakeholder pre-competitive fra- mework and initiatives, that Olam fully supports.
This is particularly important at a time when sustainability is and must continue to be a shared responsibility.” GCP is a multi-stakeholder member- ship association working collectively towards a thriving and sustainable cof- fee sector.
Heske Verburg, Managing Director, Solidaridad Europe, a sustainability partnerii of Olam Coffee, added: "So- lidaridad and Olam share a vision of prosperous farmers and resilient far- ming systems, providing a solid base for a promising alliance to integrate shared value solutions into the coffee supply chain, creating positive impact at scale."
Olam Food Ingredients (OFI) CEO, A Shekhar concluded: “Olam’s Coffee LENS strategy exemplifies everything that OFI stands for: striving to ensu- re that sustainability is at the core of our offering not only in Coffee, but across our diverse portfolio of ‘on trend’ ingredients and solutions. We want to help our customers curate their own sustainability journey to meet the increasing demands of con- sumers for food products that are not only natural but right for both planet and producer.”
582 AMEFT 14|202119 www.amefftt.com