If you need a reliable supplier of cocoa, coffee, dairy, nuts or spices, our sheer scale and specialist knowledge in each makes us a go-to. But the real value comes when we cross-pollinate our thinking to open up exciting new possibilities.
olam food ingredients is now known as ofi. Focused on the raw materials and ingredient platforms that we're known for globally - cocoa, coffee, dairy, nuts, and spices. We still offer everything we did before. What’s new is that we’re adding capabilities - especially in product development - working closely with our customers, sharing our fresh ideas to inspire new concepts. Making it real at every step, from plant to palate.
It’s easy to make something taste amazing. It’s much harder to fill it with nutritional benefits too. And what about making sure it’s ethically sourced and right for the planet? Whatever category you’re serving, let’s supersede the benchmark with our portfolio of highly complementary natural and delicious ingredients. Co-creation is easy!
Your next cookie filling, cake topping, pie crust, biscuit crumb or bread mix starts with our playground of ingredients. Let’s get busy combining tastes, textures and colors that not only delight consumers, but also the people and planet around them. Give sweet treats a natural twist by combining our cocoa powder and nut pastes to create indulgent center-filled cookies with a premium texture.
From cold brewed spiced coffee to golden milk made with dairy powder or nuts to suit modern consumer preferences. Even the most basic ingredient can make a real difference. With us, you can customize and co-create from plant to palate to find taste, texture and nutritional profiles that make your hot, cold, or plant-based beverages unique.
The world loves cocoa, in chocolate, confectionery, ice cream, bars and desserts. The need to make these better for our bodies and planet has never been greater. We’re bringing lots of fresh thinking to the table – like reducing sugar and sodium in recipes with clever cocoa creations and vegan, organic and traceable solutions. How about creating delicious vegan ‘milk’ chocolate bars with our gluten-free and grain-free cashew flour?
Emerging flavor trends in milks, yogurts and ice-creams are a real opportunity to create healthy, tasty, formulations that consumers can indulge in. Why not try new twists on familiar pairings, such as chocolate doughnut and coffee flavored ice cream? In cocoa alone, our R&D specialists can help tackle challenges in both dairy and plant-based desserts: from a unique methodology to pair cocoa powders with pea, nut, or oat bases to address taste, to reducing bitterness of FMP formats with our Fresco Cacao.
It’s great when you can respond to trends. It’s even better when you spark them yourself. Together, we can create sauces, nut-based cheeses, and spice blends that fulfil existing desires or even feed new ones. How about putting a new spin on traditional dishes with trend-led ingredients like our choco mole sauce inspired by the Oaxaca region of Mexico? Using authentic spices and premium cocoa, this sauce is rich in antioxidants with a deep color and enticing aroma that will delight the senses.
Join our search for the next trail mix, cereal, or snack bar hit. Together, we can find new ingredient combinations that fulfil consumer desire for taste, texture, nutrition, and traceability. One idea? Take consumers on a journey through the world’s most vibrant cuisines with seasoned nut recipes drawing on our Blends of the Americas spice range, including Blanched Almonds with Spicy Citrus Coast and Candied Cashews with Warm Sedona Sunset.
Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation Systems (CLMRS) have become increasingly valuable in helping us understand and tailor our interventions. They help us identify children at risk of, or in a situation of child labour, so that we can engage with families to improve and enable school attendance through training and facilitation of necessary certificates for example.
Drawing on best practices by the Fair Labor Association and the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), CLMRS has been scaled up to cover all nine of our direct cocoa sourcing countries, coffee in Guatemala, cashew in Nigeria and 100% of our hazelnut sustainability programmes in Turkey. To date, our CLMRS systems covers over 260,000 farmer households.
The diversity of farm sizes, yields, skills, and economic context in our supply chains, means that interventions are more effective when tailored to each farmer’s reality. By applying a segmentation model to ofi’s extension services, we can tailor training and support to farmer’s economic circumstances and willingness to invest.
Since applying a segmentation model to extension services in our cashew supply chain in Ghana in 2021, over 400 cashew farmers have recorded a 55% yield increase following the adoption of advice from ofi agronomists on timely pruning and pest management. The model, which is also being applied in some of our coffee supply chains, allows our field teams to tailor training and support to farmers’ economic circumstances, farm type and willingness to invest.
Under a pilot project between ofi and the NGO 100WEEKS in Uganda, 94 coffee farmers at the bottom of the pyramid received weekly cash transfers and training to alleviate debt pressures and incentivise farm investment. According to the 2023 project survey, 80% of the participating farmers have found an additional income-generating activity with 78% saying the programme has helped increase their income.
“I started my chicken farm with the money from 100WEEKS. I have 30 chickens and wanted it to grow up to 100 chickens so the farm can generate income. Besides, I use the manure from the chickens to fertilise my family coffee farm.” - Ancessio, CASH+ programme participant
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, ofi’s coffee team started growing oyster mushrooms at several warehouses which employ hundreds of female workers. With the cost of cultivation materials covered under the ofi Healthy Living programme, the women received training on basic production principles, and after the first harvest were shown how to create complete, nutritious meals with the mushrooms. The women harvested six kilograms of mushrooms on average every day for three months, which they either used for their own consumption or sold at the local market. There are plans to replicate this initiative to benefit the workers at ofi’s coffee washing stations.
We look forward to meeting you in person at PLMA. Come and visit us at stand 1.J15, hall 1, where our private label experts will be happy to help you discover our market ready solutions in soluble coffee, nuts and spices. Book your appointment now via your ofi contact or email.