Spice giant leads the way

HEADQUARTERED in Fresno, California, Olam Spices & Vegetable Ingredients (Olam SVI) is amongst the world’s major producers of spices and vegetable ingredients. It has mastered the full supply chain from source to market, growing and sourcing the finest raw materials in spice and vegetable ingredients.

Olam SVI also leads the industry in sustainable operations and its responsible growing practices are applied around the world, according to Olam SVI president Greg Estep, in this exclusive interview with FoodPacific Manufacturing Journal. The company operates in the United States, Viet Nam, China, India, Egypt and South America (Brazil and Peru).

How extensive is Olam SVI’s portfolio?

We supply the food industry with dehydrated onions, garlic, capsicum and organic tomatoes. Our portfolio of spices includes whole, ground and cracked black pepper and white pepper, ground ginger, ground cinnamon/cassia, nutmegs, ground turmeric, and ground hot red pepper.

We offer both whole and ground spices in multiple mesh sizes. We operate in the value-added segments and all products adhere to the highest standards of safety and quality, achieved through our in-house steam sterilisation process and next-generation spice-milling technologies.

How important is product or process innovation to the company’s operations?

We embrace innovation by seeking new ways to add value and efficiencies across the supply chain, while maintaining the quality of our spices. The Olam SVI spices processing facility in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam, is one of the largest in the world. Recent upgrades to this facility include advanced technologies such as cryogenic milling using liquid nitrogen; a pepper cleaning line; a plant HTST steam sterilisation and pasteurisation system; and new pepper milling lines. Our process uses high heat and pressure to achieve a 5-log reduction in Salmonella, E. coli and other pathogens.

The steam sterilisation process not only introduces a thorough kill step to achieve ready-to-eat status, but it also cleans spices of mould and other residues. New pepper, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg grinding lines and equipment have more than doubled production capacity and output for those products.

Our established presence in key spice growing regions, size and logistical expertise allow us to master the supply chain and manage risk to supply and safety. Our long-standing relationships with our growers help us exclude unreliable parties during product sourcing to further minimise risk and foster confidence in the spices we process and sell.

Along with our investment in new equipment and technologies, our Innovation & Quality (IQ) centre in California is a hub of excellence for safety and quality in our worldwide operations. Through their microbiology and chemistry laboratory work, scientists and quality assurance professionals at IQ dictate corrective and proactive actions in quality programmes at manufacturing plants in the U.S., Viet Nam, India, Egypt, Peru and China.

The IQ centre is structured to leverage cross-portfolio learnings and provide a comprehensive site for client collaboration, quality assurance and commercialisation to catalyse innovation and deliver gold standard products.

Which markets offer the most growth?

We see growth in all of our markets, especially in Asia. We believe that the market potential of continued growth in the spice business is very high. Globally, the demand for food is growing very fast and spices are a natural way to add a lot of flavour and improve the taste of these food products. The business continues to grow as trends like increased consumer tolerance of heat/spice in food and the consumption of meat increases worldwide.

What are your competitive advantages?

Olam SVI has a presence in 90% of key growing regions (Viet Nam, India, Peru, China, Brazil and Nigeria) for spices and vegetables. Our regional presence in key producing countries, coupled with our processing and logistics capabilities and industry-leading standards, not only eliminates origination complexities and mitigates market challenges, but also allows us to take control of the commodity at the farm gate level and closely manage the product from post-harvest processing to storage and final delivery—delivering consistent quality, cost-effectiveness and long-lasting customer value. We have mastered the spice supply chain through our economies of scale, logistical expertise and our established footprint across international spice centers.

Additionally, we invest in our environment, employees and the communities where we work— Olam SVI is committed to positive impacts on land, carbon, water and livelihoods. We serve clients, local communities, employees and society through strong grower relationships, fully integrated environmentally conscious processing and investments in agricultural communities.

What challenges do you see in this sector?

Sustainability and environmental conservation are the keys to the growth of the food ingredient sector. The Earth’s resources are finite, and at Olam we’re very careful about the way we source our products to ensure that it’s done responsibly and sustainably.

Beyond this, meeting the demands of the ever-changing regulatory framework and encouraging the farmers in Olam’s growing regions to align on that framework is another challenge. At Olam, we’re committed to applying our best practices around the world and creating a ripple effect of change by employing our responsible growing and processing practices in other countries of origin—we take great pride in being able to do this successfully.

What’s next for the spice business?

We feel that the consumption story on food ingredients, especially spices, will continue as the world goes through a consumption boom. There will also be a continued focus on conserving resources worldwide. We are confident that our businesses are well positioned as we look at growing responsibly to meet our objectives in environmental, social and business stewardship by building sustainable supply chains that ensure longevity of supply for our customers and improving the livelihoods of our grower partners.