Press Release Feb 13, 2025

GIZ, ofi and Rikolto expand low carbon agriculture in Ecuador to boost cocoa farmer incomes and cut emissions

Ecuador, February 13th, 2025

ofi, a global leader in food and beverage ingredients and solutions, international NGO Rikolto, and the German Development Agency GIZ (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), have today announced a low-carbon agriculture project in Ecuador, which aims to support farmers to mitigate against and adapt to the impacts of climate change on cocoa production.

The consortium is co-funded by BMZ and ofi, with Rikolto leading the implementation for ofi’s sustainability programs, including those it delivers for its customers over a three-year period. It seeks to address the impact of unpredictable weather conditions on growing cocoa by training 2,800 farmers in climate-smart agriculture.

Climate change poses a significant threat to 1.7 million Ecuadorians dependent on cocoa, with approximately 60% of cocoa farmers relying on cocoa as their main source of income.¹

The low-carbon agriculture project aims to help support farmers in creating more resilient livelihoods and increasing the efficiency of their cocoa production. By implementing agroforestry, a regenerative farming approach, cocoa can grow alongside other plant species. The technique can help farmers to improve cocoa yields and provide additional income from other planted crops, while sequestering carbon and promoting biodiversity.

The training will be delivered through 600 tailored coaching sessions or 'field schools'. Farmers, at least 20% of whom will be women, will be taught to integrate sustainability principles and agricultural standards into existing farming approaches, helping them to boost cocoa productivity and build climate resilience. The project will also produce 40,000 plants of the rare and native Nacional cocoa variety for distribution, housed within an organic cocoa production community nursery.

Insights from the project will be generated by leveraging ofi’s award-winning AtSource sustainability management system with best practices and learnings shared with national authorities, including the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to help inform national climate policy. The project is aligned with Ecuador's REDD+ Action Plan "Forests for Good Living" 2016-2025.

¹ Ecuadorian Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock. 2019. Report on cocoa yields

Paula Andrea Rueda Peña, Sustainability Manager ofi Ecuador, said:

“Together with GIZ and Rikolto, we’re strengthening the sustainable cocoa supply chain in Ecuador, helping to make it more resilient to climate change while lowering its environmental footprint. By introducing this low-carbon agriculture approach in our own sustainability programs and those we deliver for our customers, we’re supporting smallholder farmers to innovate the way they manage their farms to boost cocoa productivity and helping them on a path towards achieving a living income. This supports the aims of our overarching sustainability strategy, Choices for Change, to drive climate action and positive change across farming communities.”

Jose Luis Cueva, Cocoa Project Coordinator, Rikolto, said:

"Sustainable implementation through climate-smart cocoa agroforestry systems will generate a triple impact in terms of improving production, addressing the ravages of climate change and ensuring a living income for producers. At Rikolto, we believe that capacity building, innovation and sustainability are key pillars for improving the livelihoods of cocoa producers."

Ralf Buss, Project Manager, AgriChains Ecuador said:

“Global problems such as climate change and the loss of biodiversity can only be solved together with the involvement of different sectors and stakeholders. Strategic alliances between the public and private sectors are of fundamental importance here. In this way, innovative projects can be jointly developed and implemented that drive a transformation towards low-emission agriculture and improve the climate resilience of food and agricultural systems, which will also benefit Ecuadorian cocoa producers. This leads to greater sustainability in the global cocoa supply chain. The main objective of the project is to promote adaptation to climate change by introducing new strategies that help producers to sustainably improve their productivity. This will result in increased income while complying with social and environmental sustainability criteria, such as reducing carbon emissions in cocoa production.”

The official launch event, which took place today in Quito, was attended by members of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition, a representative on behalf of the German Ambassador in Ecuador and other actors in the cocoa supply chain.

About ofi

ofi (olam food ingredients) is an operating group born out of Olam Group. ofi offers sustainable, natural, value-added food products and ingredients so that consumers can enjoy the healthy and indulgent products they love. It consists of industry-leading businesses of cocoa, coffee, dairy, nuts, and spices. ofi has built a unique global value chain presence including its own farming operations, farm-gate origination, and manufacturing facilities. ofi partners with customers, leveraging its complementary and differentiated portfolio of ‘on-trend’ food products, to co-create solutions that anticipate and meet changing consumer preferences as demand increases for healthier food that’s traceable and sustainable. To subscribe to the ofi newsroom, please visit www.ofi.com/news-and-events (privacy statement here). If you do not wish to receive information from ofi please contact media@ofi.com. Follow @ofi-group on LinkedIn.

Olam Ecuador

Olam Ecuador is a local subsidiary of ofi (olam food ingredients) and has been in operation since 2011 and has worked with international customers since 2014 on sustainable cocoa initiatives.

About Olam Group

Olam Group is a leading food and agri-business supplying food, ingredients, feed and fibre to 22,000 customers worldwide. Our value chain spans over 60 countries and includes farming, processing and distribution operations, as well as a global network of farmers. Headquartered and listed in Singapore, Olam Group currently ranks among the top 30 largest primary listed companies in terms of market capitalisation on SGX-ST.

Since June 2020, Olam Group has been included in the FTSE4Good Index Series, a global sustainable investment index series developed by FTSE Russell, following a rigorous assessment of Olam’s supply chain activities, impact on the environment and governance transparency.

More information on Olam can be found at www.olamgroup.com.

Follow @olam on LinkedIn and Follow @olam on X.

Olam is located at 7 Straits View, Marina One East Tower #20-01, Singapore 018936.

Telephone: +65 63394100, Facsimile: +65 63399755.

About Rikolto

Rikolto is an international NGO with more than 50 years’ experience in partnering with farmer organizations and food chain stakeholders across Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Annually, Rikolto works with 240 farmer organizations, reaching 83,478 farming families across 18 countries, to change the recipe of our food system. In Latin America, we operate two programs: Good Food for Cities and Sustainable Cocoa and Coffee.

About GIZ

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) is Germany's leading provider of international cooperation services. As a service provider in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development and international education work, we are dedicated to shaping a future worth living around the world. We have over 50 years of experience in a wide variety of areas, including economic development and employment promotion, energy and the environment, and peace and security. The diverse expertise of our federal enterprise is in demand around the globe – from the German Government, European Union institutions, the United Nations, the private sector, and governments of other countries. We work with businesses, civil society actors and research institutions, fostering successful interaction between development policy and other policy fields and areas of activity. Our main commissioning party is the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

I4C Project

The Initiative for Climate Smart Supply Chains (I4C) is a funding program that supports innovative projects by multi-stakeholder consortia involving the private sector. Thereby, projects work on the topic of climate smart supply chains. The I4C brings together a wide range of actors along the supply chain of selected agricultural commodities and funds their cooperation projects in partner countries of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to combat climate change. The I4C aims at making global agricultural supply chains more climate-friendly and resilient from the shelf to the field.

GIZ, ofi and Rikolto expand low carbon agriculture in Ecuador to boost cocoa farmer incomes and cut emissions

Paula Andrea Rueda Peña, Sustainability Manager ofi Ecuador, said:

Jose Luis Cueva, Cocoa Project Coordinator, Rikolto, said:

Ralf Buss, Project Manager, AgriChains Ecuador said:

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