Olam Coffee CEO Calls for Price Stabilisation Fund

London (ots/PRNewswire) - Olam Coffee CEO Vivek Verma supports
London Declaration but industry and governments must work together to
develop a safety net for coffee farmers.

According to Olam Coffee, the world's coffee farmers will be left
in a continual limbo unless industry and governments act fast to help
them out of the current price crisis and provide future price
stability as they face the impacts of climate change.

Speaking on International Coffee Day on October 1, 2019 and on the
back of the London Declaration made by the sector following the CEO &
Global Leaders Forum (CGLF) on September 23, 2019, Olam Coffee CEO
Vivek Verma explained:

"With farmers now in the second year of very low prices, the
industry fully recognises the scope of what must be achieved under
the London Declaration but we must act quickly. Critical is to find a
way to give farmers a safety net that will also help them be
resilient in the face of climate change.

"At these very low prices millions of farmers are forced to sell
much below the costs of production. Like others, Olam is supporting
farmers - 56,000 smallholders are in sustainability programmes with
our customers and partners across 18 origins but this is a drop in
the ocean. If coffee were a product of the developed world there
would have been some price stabilisation mechanism put in place or,
at the very least, there would have been subsidies at low prices.
Unfortunately, coffee is grown in mostly developing and
underdeveloped countries, which do not have the means to support
farmers in times of low prices. I believe it is time to seriously
look at implementing a price stabilisation fund that will subsidise
farmers when prices are low for reducing production capacity over the
short-term, while helping them mitigate the long-term impacts of
climate change. The fund would then recoup the subsidy when prices
are high without any burden to local government budgets. Despite the
different situations of producing countries I believe this is
achievable if the ICO, development organisations, commercial banks
and the industry come together.

"On climate change, it is prescient that this announcement
coincides with UN Climate Week because this worries me greatly -
what's around the corner? We are seeing how more extreme weather
patterns can alter the flowering and fruiting cycles in producing
countries as well an increase in pests and diseases, such as rust.

"Without the means to invest in more resilient hybrids and other
adaptation methods for the future, farmers cannot be blamed if they
give up. In turn, this could affect consumer choice as certain
origins no longer support coffee production. Implementing the
declaration is also a race against climate change."

In 2015, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)
forecast that almost 20% of the world's producing land for Arabica
coffee could be unsuitable by 2050 due to climate change, with strong
regional differences[1].

Mr Verma continued: "One way Olam Coffee is hoping to achieve
greater impact in our sustainability programme is by opening up our
supply chains to customers via our new sustainability sourcing offer
AtSource. By tracking the whole journey of the coffee beans, AtSource
provides our manufacturing and retail customers with a verified
social and environmental footprint of their supply chain, right from
the farm to the factory gate. The insight gives them greater
visibility into how we can together make farmers and landscapes more
resilient. Our sustainability and carbon reduction efforts include
our own coffee estates."

Other actions that Mr Verma believes are critical in re-imagining
the coffee sector include:

- Upskilling farmers to improve quality for higher income. It is not
enough to be training farmers just about yield improvements.
Improved post-harvest techniques increases earning potential.
Farmers apply the new processes to produce differentiated or
specialty coffees, which fetch a higher price on the market and
could help to safeguard single-origin blends.
- Become climate advocates and help others wake up and smell the
coffee. "With so much in the news it is easy for everyone, even
those of us seeing the impacts of climate change, to switch off.
But we need to keep advocating for reduced emissions at home, at
work, in society. We all rely on coffee to get us through the day,
now coffee must rely on us," Mr Verma added.

[1] https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.p
one.0124155 (table 1)

About Olam International Limited

Olam International is a leading food and agri-business supplying
food, ingredients, feed and fibre to 19,800 customers worldwide. Our
value chain spans over 60 countries and includes farming, processing
and distribution operations, as well as a sourcing network of an
estimated 4.8 million farmers.

Through our purpose to 'Re-imagine Global Agriculture and Food
Systems', Olam aims to address the many challenges involved in
meeting the needs of a growing global population, while achieving
positive impact for farming communities, our planet and all our
stakeholders.

Headquartered and listed in Singapore, Olam currently ranks among
the top 30 largest primary listed companies in terms of market
capitalisation on SGX-ST.

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

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

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

Contacts for Corporate Communications:

Nikki Barber
Head of PR
+44-(0)2074848994
+44-(0)7568108555
nikki.barber@olamnet.com

Steven Fairbairn
Head of External Affairs
+44-(0)2073896464
steven.fairbairn@olamnet.com

ots Originaltext: Olam Coffee
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