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ofi initiatives to support regenerative agriculture
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Saturday, 11 July, 2026, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Accra, Ghana
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ofi (olam food ingredients), a global leader in food and beverage ingredients and solutions, reported progress made in 2025 to support a more regenerative cocoa production in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, as part of its membership of the Cocoa and Forest Initiative. This includes the distribution of 2.6 million multi-purpose trees through its sustainability programmes, including those it delivers in partnership with its customers, representing a 92% increase compared to 2024.
In parallel, 98,000 cocoa farmers received technical assistance to strengthen farm management practices, improve productivity, and adopt more sustainable and regenerative agriculture practices such as agroforestry, pruning, and biochar.
In Ghana, alongside a customer, the company is supporting farmers adopt biochar, which turns cocoa waste into a carbon-rich soil amendment which aims to improve soil health and reduce emissions. Biochar has the potential to support long-term carbon sequestration, restore soil structure, improve nutrient efficiency, and enhance moisture retention of the soil, helping cocoa growing conditions.
In Côte d’Ivoire, the company continues to scale agroforestry with participating farmers receiving native tree varieties such as garcinia kola or bitter kola fruit species and fast-growing deciduous timber species like terminalia superba and ivorensis to create shade on the cocoa farm. Importantly, these trees do not host vectors of Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus (CSV), a disease that continues to threaten cocoa yields in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.
Andrew Brooks, global head of Cocoa Sustainability, ofi, said, “ofi is embedded in many communities across Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, working alongside our customers and industry stakeholders as a partner for positive change. We’re helping farmers to become more resilient by integrating regenerative practices that support better cocoa growing conditions and a more robust supply of cocoa for our global food and beverage customers. Using our Regenerative Agriculture framework, we’re now starting to assess farmers’ progress in implementing these regenerative practices so we can provide actions plans to optimise farming practices and enhance environmental outcomes.”
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