FDBusiness.com

Nestle’s ‘farm to factory’ initiative which supports farmers and promotes sustainable development in agriculture worldwide celebrates its ten year anniversary. The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative at Nestle (SAIN) encourages best agricultural and sourcing practices to ensure a long-term supply of safe, quality assured, and regulatory-compliant agricultural materials.

SAIN – currently active in around 45 countries – focuses on a broad range of commodities including milk, coffee and cocoa, and highlights the Company’s continued relationships with farmers, traders and primary processors.

Over the past decade, Nestle has addressed some of the most important challenges in sustainable sourcing including: water management and irrigation, farm management guidance, technical training, greenhouse gas emissions, food safety, quality assurance, and farmer income.

Also under the SAIN scheme, the company has achieved ten years of success in implementing sustainable agriculture practices with direct supplying farmers. This was due to forming partnerships with external stakeholders, such as research institutions and professional organisations, to provide innovative solutions into its supply operations.

Last year, within Nestle’s direct sourcing operations called “farmer connect”, the company linked up directly with over half a million farmers and offered nearly 150,000 farmer trainings. In addition, more than 32,000 farmers had access to financial assistance with a total funding of CFr45m (Eur38m).