Anything is possible
Here, Chief Innovation Officer Kamesh Ellajosyula explains how our network of farmers, chefs and scientists are all working to exceed everyone’s sensory and sustainability expectations.
Innovation isn’t just exciting.
Its baked into the ofi way of working.
ofi innovation
Improving farming productivity, resilience of supply and quality and functionality of products and ingredients
Helping customers create new recipes and better products
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The combined expertise of our local sustainability teams with partners such as Funcafé, TechnoServe, Côte d’Ivoire's National Nutrition program, USAID (United States Agency for International Development), and Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) delivers solutions to improve access to clean water, healthcare services and supplies, and nutritious food.
Initiatives range from using geo-location to identify and screen for infant malnutrition in farming communities in Côte d'Ivoire - where one in five children experience stunted growth and development - to fortifying key staples with vitamins and minerals in our processing facilities.
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.
Ready to try something new?
Talk to us today.
