Olam, Singaporean trading group, palm oil giant

Audio 03:09

The Singaporean group Olam specializes in commodity trading.

A global giant in the field of palm oil.

© olamgroup.com

By: Stanislas Ndayishimiye

7 mins

The OLAM group, champion of commodity trading, has become with the marketing of 47 agricultural products from 70 different countries, "the largest farmer" in the world.

This Singaporean group, now a palm oil giant, has grown rapidly in about thirty years.

And it is in the process of diversifying.

Publicity

An agro-industrial group, OLAM has to its credit the production, processing and marketing of palm oil, rubber trees, cocoa, cashew nuts, cotton, tomatoes, sugar, rice and many others. In some countries, it sometimes emerges as an indispensable and unavoidable player. This is the case in Gabon. Arrived in 1995, Olam was subsequently accused of destroying the primary forest, as in Indonesia, for the benefit of its plantations, in a report published at the end of 2016 by the American NGO Mighty Earth and the Gabonese NGO Brainforest.

It caused us a lot of problems with the administration, engaged in the public-private partnership,

explains Marc Ona, founder of Brainforest

. And when you criticize Olam, you are criticizing the government at the same time. When we published a report on the environmental impact of Olam's agro-industrial projects - oil palm and rubber trees - the first criticisms of our report came from ministers, local NGOs, the national parks officer. We published another report with an American NGO, the first criticisms came from the government! The only group that has recognized the relevance of our arguments is the Temasek group in Singapore.

 "      

Singapore's Temasek sovereign fund has a majority stake in Olam.

The Mighty Earth and Brainforest report therefore hit the mark.

For five years, the agro-industrial group has been working to green its image by saying that it respects the environment. 

Listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange and today one of the major agro-industrial groups in the world, Olam started out as a small company that specialized in the trading of agricultural commodities.

A small company founded in 1989 in Nigeria and which no longer operates only in the agro-industrial sector.

At the beginning of the 2010s, Olam began, from Gabon, to diversify its activities, gradually integrating the service sector and the infrastructure sector in particular,”

explains Mays Mwisi, economic analyst. 

And based on this Gabonese experience, Olam decided to export the model to other African countries: in Côte d'Ivoire where Arise is currently building a port, in Mauritania where Arise is also building a port, in Benin and Togo where they are replicating the special economic zone model.

"

The group has therefore reorganized itself and is trying to specialize in particular in the development and management of special economic zones in Africa, as well as the construction and management of port and airport terminals, still in Africa, a role entrusted to a branch called Arise.

Olam, who for a long time conveyed the image of opaque functioning.

An image that can be corrected, according to Mays Mwisi.  

The only response this group can provide is to be a little more transparent, to involve civil society in anything that can help to show transparency in the activity.

"     

 Transparency expected from the Olam group, as it is for other multinationals, especially in the extractive industry.

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