Olam International creates digital supply chain sourcing tool

Olam International has created a digital sourcing tool called AtSource, which will trace the journey of raw materials and allow manufacturers to assess the environmental impact of their supply chains.

AtSource tracks the social and environmental footprint of a product from the farm all the way to its arrival at retailers, and displays this data through a digital dashboard.

Olam claims that the tool provides “unrivalled environmental and social insights into the journey of agricultural raw materials and food ingredients from the farm to manufacturing and retail customers.”

The Singapore-based agri-group says that the data gathered by AtSource will enhance its ability to trace the environmental impact of the 4.7 million farmers in the group’s supply chain.

AtSource will initially incorporate five product supply chains: Cocoa and cashews from the Ivory Coast, coffee from Brazil and Vietnam, and onions and garlic from the US.

Olam says that it aims to make its entire range of products and ingredients ‘100% AtSource ready’ by 2025.

Co-founder and group CEO of Olam, Sunny Verghese said: “Leading companies in the food sector have been investing significantly in social and environmental programmes to source their raw materials more sustainably, but change is not happening fast enough.

“In the current context I would say it is impossible to state how much of the world’s food supply can be considered truly sustainable. It is the old adage that if we cannot measure it, we cannot improve it.

“AtSource will provide our customers with the most comprehensive sustainable supply solution for their raw materials. With AtSource we can now deliver the critical sustainability factors for the long-term resilience of a crop or ingredient from a particular producing country or region.

“Using this information we can drive meaningful improvements through the supply chain from farm to customer. Make no mistake, capturing this information at scale and across all our supply chains will be a huge and costly task.

“But as the company closest to the farmer, we believe AtSource is a key driver in helping us to re-imagine global agriculture, by starting to mainstream sustainability before it is too late.”