MILAN – As the industry continues to navigate the impact of the current COVID-19 crisis, Olam Coffee has been committing financial support and resources in the origins where we operate to strengthen small-scale producers and communities. With farmers particularly at risk during the harvest season, efforts have focussed on ensuring their safety and wellbeing, while continuing to buy from them.
Together with various partners, Olam Coffee has already committed significant resources both in-kind and financial support across our origins and we are further increasing our donations to sensitise rural communities, distribute food and hygiene kits and contribute to national fundraising campaigns.
Relief efforts on the ground include:
Africa
- Donation of 2 thermo scanners, 800 temperature scan covers and 7 hands-free washing stations to District Administration Offices in Tanzania
- Motorbikes deployed with loudspeakers to disseminate WHO advice in villages surrounding Olam’s AVIV estate in Tanzania
- 8,000 coffee farmers in Côte d’Ivoire supplied with sanitation kits
- Outreach via Digital Supplier Engagement (DSE) apps to sensitise rural communities in Côte d’Ivoire on COVID-19
- Sensitisation and provision of face masks for villages in Zambia
- Over US$40,000 donated to UCDA – Uganda Coffee Development Authority
Asia
- Swab collection kiosk sponsored for Kushalnagar Government Hospital in India
- 900 pastors to be trained in Papua New Guinea to deliver sensitisation and essential supplies to farming communities (read more)
- Refrigerator for test kits and washing machine, funded by Outspan Employee COVID Relief Fund, supplied to Champasak Provincial Hospital in Laos – a COVID screening and treatment centre – along with a 5 month’s supply of Arabica coffee and 3 coffee drip machines
- COVID-19 prevention farmer training sessions to be delivering in partnership with the ILO on the Bolovens Plateau
Brazil
- Corporate matched employee fundraising for Fundaçao Oswaldo Cruz and Medicos Sem Frontiers
- Ventilator funded for local hospital
- Provision of PPE and sanitation kits to over 3,000 farming households
CAA
- $100k support fund for coffee farmers in Colombia and Peru, identified amongst those with the most pressing needs
- First aid and hygiene kits and a 15-day supply of food essentials to be delivered to Colombian farmers in Huila and Tolima.
- Food packages and sanitation kits distributed to 3,000 coffee farmers in Peru
- 480 food packages delivered to farming households in Totonicapán, Sololá, Huehuetenango and Chichicastenango in Guatemala, with a further 300+ planned
