Nestlé’s ‘farm to factory’ initiative which supports farmers and promotes sustainable development in agriculture worldwide has just celebrated its 10th anniversary.
The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative at Nestlé (SAIN) encourages best agricultural and sourcing practices to ensure a long-term supply of safe, quality assured, and regulatory-compliant agricultural materials.
SAIN is currently active in around 45 countries and focuses on a broad range of commodities including milk, coffee and cocoa, and highlights the Nestlé’s continued relationships with farmers, traders and primary processors.
Nestlé achieved good results in the following initiatives as well: water management and irrigation, farm management guidance, technical training, greenhouse gas emissions, food safety, quality assurance, and farmer income.
Over the past decade, SAIN has supported farmers and promoted sustainable development in agriculture worldwide. Implementing sustainable agriculture practices with direct supplying farmers became available due to the organization as well.
Last year, within Nestlé’s direct sourcing operations called ‘farmer connect’, the company contacted directly with over half a million farmers and arranged nearly 150,000 farmer trainings. More than 32,000 farmers had access to financial assistance with a total funding of CHF 45 million.
Among other SAIN achievements were: biodiversity for Columbian farmers a project to farmers’ fresh milk yield by combining different species of trees, hedges and shrubs on the same pasture land.
In Mexico in 2009, Nestlé helped farmers improve their farm management by using the sustainability assessment tool RISE and helped to save energy at milk farms in Mexico.
Last year SAIN initiated reducing water consumption in China by 80% in the processing of coffee. It happened due to the new post-harvest equipment that was introduced to the Nestlé farm in the Yunnan Province. Now the farm serves to demonstrate water saving techniques by recycling water and reusing pulps from coffee beans as fertilizer.
Nestlé has recently partnered with Hsu Fu Chi, a leading manufacturer and distributor of confectionery products in China.