ofi Chief Sustainability Officer Roel van Poppel on competitiveness and collaboration for food system transformation

Food ingredient manufacturer ofi is making sustainability a competitive advantage – yet delivering on this promise will require collaboration with other food system players. Chief Sustainability Officer Roel van Poppel describes how the company balances these two priorities.

“Our value proposition is that we are sustainability experts,” van Poppel declares at the start of a call with CSO Futures. “We understand the issues, the challenges, the risks that happen across the supply chains, but we can actually drive impact because we're also embedded throughout the supply chains all the way into those farming communities.”

The company sources raw materials including cocoa, coffee, dairy, nuts and spices from 2.8 million farmers across more than 50 countries, and transforms them into key ingredients sold to food brands such as Nestlé. With a workforce of 18,000 and US$16.3 billion in revenue, ofi is well positioned to be the bridge between consumer-facing companies’ sustainability targets and their implementation in farming communities.