Olam Spices

Join us today, Thursday, May 13th, for Chicagoland Food & Beverage Network's 2021 Innovation Series: Sustainability Conference -- a virtual event that tackles a series of innovation topics of interest to all of us in the food and beverage industry. Tune into Session 3: "Up-Cycling - Where Sustainability and Innovation Meet," to hear how reducing food waste will be crucial to addressing food insecurity and mitigating climate change. The panel will feature experts such as Claire Loudis, Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Manager at Olam Spices.

"The consumer trends driving spices in the US and globally are consumer preference for bold, authentic, natural, taste and flavor... Consumers want to experiment with ethnic cuisine. Taste and flavor are a very important component - along with health and wellness and sustainability and traceability. That whole consumer trend is driving high growth in spices globally," said Shekhar A, CEO, OFI

Tuesday, May 11, 2021 is the first day of The American Spice Trade Association's Virtual Conference, ASTA Online 2021 and there are two chances to hear from our experts. Today, Vinayak (Vini) Narain, Senior Vice President - Onion & Garlic at Olam Spices, will be on the panel discussing US and Chinese garlic updates. This presentation will be a 30-minute regional update presented by a moderated panel discussion. Trends, Market Updates and Crop Reports... 1:00 pm 3:30 pm ET Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 12, 2021, tune in to hear Olam Spices' Strategic Account Director, Melissa Roslawski and the panel discuss the state of the spice supply chain with respect to the global pandemic. The panelists will take questions from the audience and discuss key issues that are top of mind for the spice industry. Spice Supply Chain Disruption in the Midst of Unprecedented Demand 11:00 am Noon ET If you haven't already, you can register here: https://bit.ly/3hjEbdW

While our CY21 US onion harvest has begun in the Imperial Valley, Olam Spices Director of Research and Development, Larry Hanson, Plant Breeder, Mary Allison Campbell and Senior Agronomist, Chris Malek are evaluating seed fields. The umbels you see pictured here will develop onion seeds, which will one day be planted in one of our four diversified growing regions. Currently, the team is monitoring for disease, nicking for seed production and estimating when bees will be needed for pollination.

A Mintel study found 35% of U.S. consumers would be tempted to try a new dish if it had unique flavors or ingredients and 80% of people like trying new seasonings, spices and flavors. ADM said last fall that nostalgic, comforting flavors will become mainstream options for many manufacturers. "Even though there might be some shifts as we come out post-COVID, our expectation is that growth will remain in the double digits and we don’t believe it’s slowing down. Those trends will help pick up consumption," said Greg Estep, Olam Spices CEO.

Our global operations ensures that at any given moment of the year, you can find our agricultural operations team harvesting at least one of our sustainably grown spices. Explore our harvest calendar to see what and where we're harvesting right now: bit.ly/2Ugo4R8

Daniel Errotabere and his family have been farming in Riverdale, California and the surrounding area for nearly a century. Hear how the pandemic has affected growers and learn about the changes he's had to make to his operations.

#DYK although apple pie is famously considered one of the unofficial symbols of the United States, the dessert actually originated in England? The recipe usually calls for sugar, flour, apples, butter, eggs and cinnamon.

Our ag operations team is currently hard at work in the deserts of Egypt. In the south, where they planted earlier, the onion seeds have begun to sprout (top picture). While our crop supervisors monitor these fields, the rest of the team is in the west, planting more of our proprietary onion seeds (bottom picture), which will be ready to be harvested in May 2021.

Crop Update - Chilli: The crop is at the early vegetative stage in Andhra, Telangana and Karnataka. All major growing regions in India received normal to excess rainfall by early September, with replanting and gap lling taking place in damaged areas. Read more: https://bit.ly/37MktTy

It is our mission to re-imagine global agriculture and food systems so that we are putting more back into food and farming systems than is taken out. We call this having a net positive impact by creating living landscapes where prosperous farmers and thriving communities co-exist with healthy ecosystems. In turn, this will make our business more resilient and help us identify new and exciting opportunities. Explore our impact stories: https://bit.ly/2ULrMny Sign-up for our quarterly sustainability newsletter to stay up-to-date with all of our initiatives: https://bit.ly/2HITwW2

Spice School is back in session! Today, we're highlighting marjoram, a sweet, delicate herb with bitter notes. Explore more spice school lessons: http://bit.ly/2OJKp7e

Olam Spices' Innovation and Quality Centers around the world are filled with brilliant food scientists, chemists, quality assurance professionals and engineers each bringing a different set of skills and perspectives to our organization. Today, hear Hyma Nair, Assistant Manager of Microbiology in Cochin, India and Hien Tran, Regional QA Manager in Fresno, California, discuss their experience as women in agriculture.

While onion planting for next year's crop kicked off in September for our US operations, our ag team on the other side of the world, in Egypt, began planting Olam's proprietary onions at the beginning of October. In Egypt we have contract farming relationships with local farmers to help us produce our fully-traceable and sustainable onions.

Olam Spices invites you on a virtual tour of our new state-of-the-art garlic processing facility in Jinxiang County of Jining Shandong, China. Explore the 42,800 square meter building where we produce over 15,000 tons of dried garlic products for our customers around the world.

Across our global supply chain, we employ numerous women in rural areas of India, China, Vietnam and Brazil. Today, we celebrate these hardworking women. Olam’s ambition to improve smallholder 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. Find out some of the initiatives we've created to highlight and support these women: https://bit.ly/2FwDayL

#DYK nutmeg trees actually produce two different spices? The first is nutmeg, a warm, versatile spice that can be used in sweet and savory cooking. Can you guess the second spice? Hint: It's often used in Asian, Caribbean, Indian and Moroccan cuisine.

Today in the US, we celebrate the oldest profession in the world farming. For contributing to an essential part of all our lives and for being stewards of the land, we would like to thank our farmers. In honor of National Farmers Day, here are some fascinating farm facts: 87% of US agriculture products sold are produced on family farms or ranches Careful stewardship by America’s food producers has spurred a 34% decline in erosion of cropland by wind and water... since 1982 More than half of America’s farmers intentionally provide habitat for wildlife. Deer, moose, fowl and other species have shown significant population increases for decades Women make up 36% of the total number of U.S. farm operators; 56% of all farms have at least one female decision-maker Source: American Farm Bureau Federation