Powering beehives with AI in California, and empowering cashew farmers across Africa and Asia are just two highlights published by global ingredients leader ofi, in its latest sustainability report for its nuts business.

The annual ‘Nut Trails’ impact report1 details progress delivered by ofi’s origin teams of agronomists and social workers, together with partners across its global almond, cashew and hazelnut operations in 2023. Notable initiatives include the KIND Almond Acres Initiative, testing regenerative agriculture practices across 500 acres in California, and expanding the deployment of AI-powered BeeHome technology2 to protect pollinators.

In the US, beekeepers had reported colony losses of over 45% in the 2022-2023 crop year3, so this innovative AI-powered beehive technology offered an important boost, protecting over 650,000 bees4. This transformation complemented new irrigation decision support tools that are optimizing water usage across almond orchards and offsetting 85% of total energy consumption on Australia orchards through renewable sources.

In Turkey, more than 7,000 hazelnut farmers received training in advanced crop residue management and composting practices, important for farm resilience and marking an important step in encouraging adoption of climate-smart practices. ofi’s social impact also expanded from the previous year, with premium payments to cashew farmers in sustainability programs nearly doubling to US$2 million in 2023 and nutrition and health support programs reaching over 116,500 people in cashew-growing regions.

Burcu Turkay, global head of Sustainability for Nuts at ofi, said, "I'm proud of the progress we've made over the last year against a number of our 2030 goals, but there are also areas where we need to accelerate impact. Implementing successful sustainability programs requires flexibility and staying open to new technologies, approaches and business models when faced with unexpected or complex challenges. To achieve our Nut Trails ambitious sustainability targets by 2030 and support those of our customers, we need to make significant progress through strong and impactful collaboration with our stakeholders."

Progress reported today is contributing to the dedicated 2030 Nut Trails targets under four key impact pillars: Prosperous Farmers, Thriving Communities, Climate Action, and Regenerating the Living World, which are aligned with ofi’s overarching Choices for Change sustainability strategy.

Ashok Krishen, chief executive officer of ofi's nuts platform, added, " Behind every nut are differing and varied sustainability challenges, requiring specific approaches, investments and partnerships. The progress we’re sharing today was made possible through our 13 impactful partnerships with customers, NGOs, and industry bodies, bringing a joint funding commitment of US$2 million to our sustainability programs last year.

“These programs span many farming communities across our nut products and origins, from California, where we’re working with Mars on the KIND Almond Acres project to generate proven and scalable regenerative agricultural best practices, to Côte d’Ivoire, where we’re partnering with the National Nutrition Program (PNN) to tackle malnutrition in cashew communities by using geo-location to screen over 14,000 children last year. I look forward to continuing our collaboration and would like to invite new partners to discover how they can be the change with us to deliver more sustainable choices from seed to snack.”