How Olam Agri is Promoting Sustainable Practices in Baking Industry

As environmental sustainability increasingly becomes an urgency for businesses, Precious Ugwuzor reports that investment in research that are capable of yielding sustainable solutions to environmental challenges, as well as diminishing natural resources, are critical levers of growth. Through focused Corporate Social Sustainability, CSS, efforts Olam Agri is leading the charge for the baking industry in Nigeria to prosper sustainably by deploying gasifiers in local bakeries in place of the more expensive diesel generators

Wider women empowerment and a deeper environmental sustainability drive are critical to achieving prosperity. This approach creates prosperity in the present while preserving the future of the unborn generation.

Hence, equipping women to enhance their productivity level, investing in curiosity-driven research to fast track the pivot to renewable energy has become an important socioeconomic focus across the world. Nigeria is also beginning to take the focus seriously.

The World Bank Gender Equality Index in 2020 revealed that Nigeria still has a lot of ground to cover to achieve gender equity. Ranked 27th out of 53 nations surveyed on the index, the foregoing assertion about the country can hardly be disputed.

Interestingly, Nigerian women are enterprising, industrious, and creative. They keep stamping these impressive values on key segments of the economy. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a global professional services firm, 41 per cent of micro-businesses operating in the country are owned by women.

Considering the gender’s strong entrepreneurial drive, it is believed that by providing the population segment sufficient support in terms of funding, skill development and exposure to useful growth practices, their output would expand greatly.

Regarding environmental sustainability, issues arising from environmental degradation because of higher carbon emissions and ineffective management of waste released from the production circles are generating hot discourses. Failure to manage these sustainability issues could mortgage the future.

This is why Abdullahi Mohammed Evuti from the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Abuja, in an academic presentation, subtly advised the Federal Government to focus on formulating policies that would ensure a balance between ‘’economic development and the sustainability of its environmental resources.”

Private businesses such as Olam Agri in Nigeria, are rising to support the government’s effort in tackling the twin issues of women empowerment and environmental sustainability. The business is driving the attainment of the Federal Government’s top economic development agenda through the Seeds for The Future Foundation (SFTF), its corporate social investment (CSI) vehicle.

The CSI vehicle is focused on supporting farmers and farming communities, enabling wider education & skill development for young people, upskilling women bakers, promoting health & nutrition, and reducing carbon emissions in business operations.

To provide support for women, the agribusiness launched the Crown Flour Angels (CFA) initiative in 2021. The CFA initiative equips local women with baking skills to enhance their earnings while enabling them to contribute meaningfully to their community and the national economy.

By 2022, the business scaled the women empowerment initiative to train and provide baking tools for 250 International Cake Exploration Societé (ICES) women in Lagos. The trainees were further certified by the National Business & Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) to enable them to find deeper relevance in the industry.

As a follow-up to the successful training of the ICES women training, Olam Agri launched a baking academy early in 2023, in the country’s largest city, Kano. The academy is currently helping women in that region to build and learn baking skills. These learning engagements are expected to yield good incomes for the women’s households when put to commercial use. It is a fine way to deepen women’s empowerment.

Olam Agri in Nigeria consistently matches strategic focus with suitable implementation actions. To fast-track, the achievement of reduced carbon emissions across business operations, one of the major pillars of the Olam Agri SFTF, the business continues to invest in research. Its research activities focus on delivering innovation capable of reducing carbon footprint and encouraging a cleaner, greener Nigeria.

It recently developed an industry innovation targeted at utilising agri-waste to produce a heat source useful for bakery operations. The innovation which is called ‘the Gasifier’, is a Palm Kernel oven which utilises palm kernel waste i.e., palm kernel shells to produce heat that powers bakery ovens. This innovative biofuel provides a cleaner, greener environment.

What is the smart thinking behind this innovative sustainability and production approach? The palm oil industry is seeing a surge in production activities due to the growth in demand for palm oil derivative foods, beverages, cosmetics, and personal care products. The derivative production processes create solid waste begging for innovative utilization.

A report compiled by Energy Procedia, from a research work carried out in Indonesia established further that palm kernel biofuel improves public health status by decreasing the level of pollution in the air. It reduces the level of solid waste lying around. It reduces the cost of energy by cutting the rate of dependence on the more expensive and scarce fossil fuels. It also reduces the depletion of natural resource as well as mitigate climate change.

With those environmental, climatic, public health and cost advantages in view, Olam Agri’s palm kernel-fired oven or ‘the gasifier’ as it is popularly known is an exciting innovation.

Speaking about the innovative palm kernel-fired oven, Ashish Pande, Country Head, of Olam Agri in Nigeria, said, “We are committed to supporting the country’s sustainability drive to tackle climate change. As an innovation-driven organisation, we are utilizing agri-waste to produce combustible gas that fires bakery ovens and cuts reliance on expensive, environmentally unfriendly diesel fuel. This innovation utilizes the amply available palm kernel shells to produce a form of renewable energy that aids bakery operations.”

“We have completed the trial of the innovative palm kernel shell-fired ovens in five local bakeries. The owners of the bakeries are realizing the significant cost advantage attached to using the ovens and are glad to continue with them in place of the more expensive options.”

Bolaji Anifowose, Vice President of Olam Agri in Nigeria, explained that the innovative bakery solution is practical and cost-effective. He said, “Rather than importing the technology from elsewhere, the solution is developed locally thereby conserving FOREX. Also on estimates, the palm kernel fired oven reduces cost significantly by over 75 per cent and decarbonises baking operation”.

The innovative palm kernel-fired oven represents a profitability stimulus for bakers. The bakers under the aegis of the Premium Bread Makers Association of Nigeria (PBAN) have been lamenting the hike in diesel price from N260 to about N850 lately. They said the hike sent the cost of bread production to an unbearable level, such that many of their members are having to shut down operations.

Sumervant Singh – Vice President – Technical at Olam Agri added that “the shift from fossil fuels to innovative and sustainable energy sources for baking ovens is not just a matter of economic and environmental sense, but also a step towards securing a healthier future for our planet and generations to come,”.

Considering the cost advantage attached to using palm kernel-fired ovens instead of a diesel-powered generator, in a market plagued by an epileptic power supply, the bakers can look forward to getting back to their profitability level. Nigeria can also look forward to a greener future driven by innovation, thanks to Olam Agri in Nigeria.

Olam Agri is a leading agribusiness, transforming food, feed and fibre with a global origination footprint, processing capabilities and deep understanding of market needs built over 33 years. With a strong presence in high-growth emerging markets and products across grains & oilseeds, animal feed & protein, rice, edible oils, specialty grains & seeds, cotton, wood products, rubber and commodity financial services, Olam Agri is at the heart of global food and agri-trade flows with approximately 40 million MT in volume traded annually.

Focused on transforming food, feed, and fibre for a more sustainable future, it aims at creating value for customers, enable farming communities to prosper sustainably and strive for a food-secure future.

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