International Day of Rural Women

OCT 15, 2020

It is our corporate mission to drive transformation in the food industry, in an ethical, socially responsible and environmentally sustainable way. We aim to “re-imagine global agriculture and food systems” within the boundary conditions of growing responsibly. There are 3 outcomes we intend to achieve through our purpose: prosperous farmers and food systems, thriving communities and the re-generation of the living world. 

Yet, our ambition to improve farmer livelihoods cannot be fully achieved without addressing gender equality. A fundamental human right, gender equality is also strongly linked to agricultural productivity and social and economic development.

We're constantly learning new lessons on what we can do differently, better and/or more routinely and applying insights from one product line to the others. By sharing our efforts across our businesses, we hope to deepen and speed the improvements we can make in the everyday lives of the women in the communities we serve.

To celebrate International Day of Rural Women, we’d like to highlight some of the initiatives we have worked on to benefit the hardworking women across our supply chains:

Uplifting Families and Communities

On our pepper estate in Brazil, we follow local labor laws and international labor conventions, including a total repudiation of child and slave labor throughout our production chain. Our team in Brazil always prioritizes hiring people in local communities who are native the region. We uplift families by providing agricultural training and employing more than one person per family.

Women in Agriculture Series

At Olam Spices, we employ numerous women in rural parts of India, Brazil, Vietnam and Egypt -- some of which have been featured in our Women in Ag video series. Each video features a woman employed by Olam Spices from women who work on our Agricultural Ops team to women on the Innovation and Quality team and highlights the challenges they have faced in their careers and how they have overcome them. 

Family Friendly Policies

In Egypt, most of our onion peelers are women and many of them are also mothers. To support these women with childcare options, Olam has built a school-nursery for children to learn and play that is free of charge for anyone in the community. The school is equipped with two teachers, a nanny, desks and toys for the children. This initiative has not only benefited the peelers and community but has also positively impacted Olam, in terms of productivity and employee retention.

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