Water

Water is the lifeblood of agriculture and food production. Managing freshwater is fundamental to our operations and supply chains, as well as to the communities and environments in which we operate.

Measuring Progress

30% of our upstream plantations, concessions, farms, and large processing plants are in water stressed regions. We monitor and manage the use of water in these upstream operations and are working towards creating resource management plans for all our priority supply chains.

Within our processing operations, we seek to optimise our water use, to reduce wastewater volumes and content, and to protect water courses. Read about some of our latest initiatives and goals in the latest annual report.

In 2022, our Australia and USA almonds team launched dedicated 2030 water targets for our orchards in the USA and Australia under Almond Trail, which include implementing soil and plant moisture monitoring in 100% of orchards to optimise water efficiency and remediating 75% of wet and saline areas.

In 2021, 5.57 million farmers benefited from digital agronomy support. This also included providing accurate weather forecasting and actionable insights to help with water management.

We have commenced an irrigation project in our palm plantations in Gabon. Over 23,000 ha of planted land will be supported during extended dry periods, improving yields.

Our coffee facility in Vietnam has installed a pH correction system to enable condensate water from evaporators to be reused. It has updated the reverse osmosis system to recover, and reuse rejected water, reducing water intensity.

Partnering for Scale

We continue to review our own operations and supply chain, to make positive changes. However, we cannot make the level of change required alone. We are active in a number of sector-wide initiatives and are collaborating with customers to help them mitigate their environmental impacts.

California Water Action Collaborative

Water Security Through AtSource

In Matas de Minas in Brazil, Olam has been working to improve sanitation and access to safe drinking water for coffee growing communities through improved facilities and education.

No Tears for Onion Farmers

I’ve been farming for 20 years in Egypt and working with Olam for the past two seasons. During this period, myself and my fellow farmers have been able to reduce water consumption.

Irrigation Pilot Insight

Vietnamese coffee farmers working with Olam have seen water consumption on their farms drop by 33% following the installation of six pilot irrigation systems.