Agri Science & Technology

Plant science is fundamental to improving farming productivity, resilience of our supply and the quality and functionality of our products and ingredients.

Person cutting a plant stem through the middle with a knife

Global crop production faces many challenges, including fragile supply chains, characterized by inefficient farming, vulnerability to disease and climate change, high environmental impact and connected social issues. Working together with farmers in the field – to improve productivity and resilience – will lead to better income for farmers, more efficient food crops and reduced impact on the environment. While our sustainability agronomists are key in spearheading our on-the-ground collaborative effort, we also work with institutes and industry partners, through governmental initiatives and with universities to enhance our collective knowledge and to increase positive impact in agricultural supply chains.

Close up shot of a seedling sprouting and the hand of someone doing something in the background

Through our understanding and ability to identify the biological factors that impact raw material value and yields – in collaboration with our farmers – we have developed sustainable solutions to improve functionality, quality and farm productivity throughout our global operations, from cocoa to spices and from coffee to nuts.

We strive to help farmers understand crop quality attributes to create improved consumer products and gain a higher price, and giving customers increased consistency. Taking this one step further, through plant science, we can also adapt raw material parameters to improve and differentiate flavoring and coloring properties or improve fat content.

Our customers – well-known brands from around the world – can rely on the quality of our different ingredients to create their signature products.

Man tying sellotape around a plant branch

Read ofi news

Press Release Nov 20, 2024

From agronomy to AI: ofi accelerates sustainability impact across global nuts supply chains

Powering beehives with AI in California, and empowering cashew farmers across Africa and Asia are just two highlights published by global ingredients leader ofi, in its latest sustainability report for its nuts business.

The annual ‘Nut Trails’ impact report¹ details progress delivered by ofi’s origin teams of agronomists and social workers, together with partners across its global almond, cashew and hazelnut operations in 2023. Notable initiatives include the KIND Almond Acres Initiative, testing regenerative agriculture practices across 500 acres in California, and expanding the deployment of AI-powered BeeHome™ technology2 to protect pollinators.

Press Release Nov 20, 2024

AtSource receives equivalence under the SAI Platform’s Farm Sustainability Assessment – FSA 3.0.

Two tiers of ofi’s sustainability management system AtSource – AtSourceV and AtSource+ – have been recognized as equivalent schemes against the Sustainability Farm Assessment FSA 3.0 from the SAI platform, obtaining the gold and silver equivalence levels respectively for its spices, cocoa, coffee, and nuts products. This achievement reiterates ofi’s commitment to sustainability and to customers in their journey towards meeting their commitments.

We are pleased to announce that AtSource+ and AtSourceV have been benchmarked as equivalent schemes against the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform’s Farm Sustainability Assessment scheme – FSA Version 3.0, obtaining the highest-level equivalence for the AtSource+ tier¹.

The SAI Platform's Farm Sustainability Assessment FSA 3.0 provides a widely recognized framework to assess, improve, and validate on-farm sustainability in agricultural supply chains.

Following the benchmarking results, the AtSource system has achieved:

FSA Gold level equivalent for the AtSource+ tier, being the highest-level recognition and confirming best-in-class sustainable practices for farms in AtSource+ supply chains, and their commitment to high environmental and social responsibility standards.
FSA Silver level equivalent for the AtSourceV tier, confirming farms are meeting a well-defined standard of responsible agricultural practices. This includes good environmental stewardship, respect for labor rights, and safe working conditions.

Articles Nov 14, 2024

Rishi Kalra, Executive Director and Group CFO at ofi quoted in Financial Times curtain raiser article ahead of COP 16

For Olam Food Ingredients, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of food and drink ingredients, the alarm rang with the bees.

As one of the world’s largest almond growers, OFI says it spends between $8mn and $11mn a year on honeybees needed to pollinate almond trees. Despite this, productivity on the farms started to decline “because the bees were stressed by their industrialised environment”, says Rishi Kalra, executive director and group chief financial officer. “So, we worked with partners to create natural habitats for bees on our farms and reduce their exposure to agrichemicals. What we saw was that productivity steadily increased.”

Want to talk?

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch today.

Agri Science & Technology

Read ofi news

Want to talk?

Get in touch

Subscribe to our newsletter