Press release
1st Dec, 2021
Olam secures US$150 million loan to purchase sustainable cotton under the Better Cotton Initiative
Singapore
Leading global food and agri-business Olam International Limited (“Olam’’) has secured a financing facility (“the Facility”) linked to the procurement of sustainable cotton under the Better Cotton Initiative (“BCI”).
Aggregating US$150 million, the Facility has a 2-year tenor and has Olam Treasury Pte. Ltd. and Olam Global Agri Treasury Pte. Ltd. as co-borrowers. Proceeds from the Facility will be used for procurement of sustainable cotton licensed by BCI.
N Muthukumar, Group CFO of Olam, said:
“Olam continues to re-imagine what sustainable financing can look like through innovative, purpose-driven initiatives that have the strong support of our banking partners. This Facility supports Olam’s procurement of sustainable cotton via the Better Cotton Initiative, while combining Olam’s operational ability, leadership position in cotton and sustainability focus with the banks’ objective of supporting more financing linked to sustainable activities.”
Press release
20th Oct, 2020
Olam’s AtSource Wins 2020 Reuters Responsible Supply Chain Award
Revolutionary sustainability insights platform showcases how social and environmental risks are being managed and monitored
London
AtSource, a revolutionary sustainability insights platform developed by global food and agri-business Olam to provide actionable data for manufacturing and retail customers of the third-party supply chains for products like coffee, cocoa, cashew, cotton, and rice, has just won the 2020 Reuters Responsible Supply Chain Award.
The Reuters Responsible Business Awards recognise leading strategies shaping the future of sustainable business. The judging panel, drawn from business, media, NGOs, and academia, said of Olam's winning submission:
“AtSource is a highly innovative and scalable plus well-established model that allows Olam's customers - for the first time – to track the social and environmental footprint of a product from the farmer group, to their factory gate. It uses 150 economic, social and environmental metrics, bringing transparency to what has
Blog
7th Oct, 2022
Better cotton in a changing climate
This article is written by Ashok Hegde, CEO for Fibre, Agri-industrials and Ag Services at Olam Agri and a Better Cotton Council Member
Cotton is not only the world’s most used natural fibre, but also a source of livelihood for the millions that depend on it. Cotton directly supports the livelihoods of 350 million people worldwide, including 100 million farmers. Yet, the cotton plant is extremely sensitive to changing weather conditions and the impact of climate change on cotton crops will make managing cotton supplies even more challenging.
Across the world, farmers continue to be impacted by extreme weather patterns such as erratic monsoons, droughts and excessive rainfall. Smallholder farmers are exceptionally vulnerable to weather events. Extreme weather events have the ability to destroy an entire harvest, thereby threatening the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.
According to Cotton 2040, 40% of cotton-producing regions are likely to see their growing seasons shortened due
Blog
1st Dec, 2020
A Sustainable, Equitable Food System Needs to be Nourished at the Source
COVID-19 has exposed many of the vulnerabilities in our food system, one of which is just how reliant global supply chains are on people’s well-being at every step of the journey. The small-scale farmers in emerging markets who produce much of the world’s food ingredients, live in countries that face high rates of malnutrition, with many farming households unable to eat healthily themselves.
The strong link between health and agricultural productivity is one of the reasons nutrition has moved up the sustainability agenda for Olam. Malnutrition is said to cost the private sector as much as $850 billion a year in lost productivity, according to a recent Chatham House reporti, with much of this borne by the ag sector given the labour intensity of farming. So as a business that plans to run efficiently for the next 30, 50 years and beyond, helping to reduce malnutrition in the communities where we operate is actually a down payment on future productivity.
Financial incentive aside,
