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Read about the latest developments across the busines, Including our global sustainability initiatives.
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In 1989 Nigeria was the launch pad for Olam’s global business endeavours, and we have featured prominently in the country’s economy ever since.
With an initial focus on the procurement of primary commodities like cashews, cocoa and shea nut, we gradually refined our operational scope and expanded operations into 3 major business streams, namely exports, imports, and branded packaged food products.
Today, we have over 3,000 staff spread throughout the country, engaged in helping us manage our value chain activities of sourcing, processing, marketing and distribution.
With offices and operational units across all geopolitical zones of the Nigerian Federation, Olam has a wide and growing network of farmers, suppliers, wholesalers, local buying agents (LBAs), customers and service providers. Today, these networks encompass approximately 500,000 farmers and have created tens of thousands of jobs in indirect employment.
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Principal business activities in Nigeria include:
- Animal Feeds and Hatchery with Olam Hatcheries Limited - our most recent major investment
- Sourcing and procurement, grading, processing and export of agricultural products such as cocoa, cashew, and sesame
- Local farming, milling and distribution of rice
- Wheat milling and Pasta with group company Crown Flour Mills
- Biscuits, candy and confectionery with OK Foods Ltd
- Noodles with Olam Sanyo
- Dairy beverages with Ranona Nigeria Ltd
- Culinary ingredients with Caraway Foods Ltd
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Sustainability in Nigeria
In 2013, we invested over 19 billion Naira in a 10,000-hectare farm with integrated mill which directly employs 950 people from the surrounding communities, producing 36,000 metric tonnes of rice for the Nigerian markets (Mama’s Pride and Mama’s Choice brands). The farm also supports an ‘outgrower programme’ whereby surrounding rice-growing communities are supported by the Olam farm with training, pre-finance, fertiliser and seeds in order to improve their paddy yields.
Currently 7,000 farmers are engaged in the programme. This investment is specifically in line with the Government’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda to produce rice for the domestic market thereby boosting self-sufficiency. In 2013, it was internationally recognised by The Rockefeller Foundation as a catalytic innovation’ in African Agriculture’ and in 2018, it has been identified as one of 3 high impact success stories for Global Recognition by the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
Investments in recent years, in addition to the rice farm, include:
- Pioneering domestic sesame hulling and sesame exports. Olam was the first entrant into the Japanese import market in 1995, and has invested in state-of-the-art processing facilities in Lagos and Ogun states, which employ close to 1000 workers;
- In 2017, we invested in an integrated animal feed mill, poultry breeding farms and hatchery in Chikpiri Gabas Village, Gwagwada in Kaduna State. Through our facilities, we are stimulating the entire Nigerian poultry and fish farming sector by providing local farmers and distributors with high-quality feed and chicks at competitive prices, offering training for farmers on best poultry practices and creating thousands of direct and indirect rural employment opportunities.
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Meet the Team
We employ over 10,000 people across over 82 locations.
Mukul Mathur
Country Head, Nigeria
News, Views and Insights
28th Jan, 2021
Top Employers Institute recognises Olam International for excellence in HR
Company’s operations in Cote d’Ívoire, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and the Netherlands also separately recognised
Africa
Olam International (Olam), the global food and agri-business, has been recognised by the Top Employers Institute for the first time in 2021 for its excellence in HR practices for the Africa region. The Company’s operations in Cote d’Ívoire, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, as well as the Netherlands, have also separately been awarded for their HR best practices.
The auditing survey from the Top Employers Institute highlighted Olam as excelling in each of the assessment categories, which included people strategy, organisation and change, career, digital HR, work environment, employer branding, talent acquisition and onboarding, performance management, learning, wellbeing, rewards and recognition, diversity and inclusion, and sustainability.
Jaideep Biswas, Regional Head of Human Resources, Africa, Olam International Limited, said,
“People are critical to
3rd Sep, 2020
Digital business breakthrough in Ghana
First smartphone food B2B App transforms grocery distribution and fuels Olam's digital expansion plans in West Africa
Olam Markets, Ghana's first and only B2B mobile app in the food sector, has made such a positive impact with grocery distributors that its owner, global food and agri-business Olam International, is now planning to take the app into West Africa.
Developed for the distributors of various foods businesses of Olam Ghana, including staples such as Royal Aroma Rice and First Choice Flour, culinary products such as Tasty Tom Tomato Mix, and branded snack foods such as Nutrisnax Biscuits, the app launched on June 24, 2019 after multiple rounds of testing in Accra and other towns, as well as the involvement of a team of young Ghanaians fresh from their year of post-tertiary education national service. The app added an average of 50 distributors each month, and, in little over a year, is today used by 90% of distributors supplying retailers with packaged foods processed a
16th Mar, 2021
7 principles for improving economic opportunity for farmers and rural communities
Smallholder farmers are the foundation of the global agriculture and food sector. It’s estimated that they produce around 30% of total crop production, making them critical to global food security. Olam relies on around 5 million smallholders for crops like cashew, cocoa, coffee, cotton and rice. Their ability to produce high yields of good quality and to earn a decent living is key to both short-term gains and to responsibly growing the business in the long-run.
At the same time, limited access to education, agri-training and technology, and banks and credit, result in yields being much lower than they should be. This threatens the reliability of Olam’s supply, while low incomes perpetuate poverty and discourage the next generation from becoming farmers.
There are 760,000 smallholders in Olam’s sustainability programmes - an uplift of 40% over the last two years, with farms covering 1.4 million hectares. Our approach to unlocking the economic potential of farmers through these progr
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