Direct · Agribusiness
Olam Orchards Australia
Australia's largest almond producer identifies the true cost of waste.
Customer profile
With over 15,000 hectares of almond orchards across 11 farms in the Sunraysia region of Victoria and New South Wales, Olam is Australia's largest almond grower. The company operates one of the world's largest hulling, shelling and processing plants, with over 120 full-time employees. As a subsidiary of Olam International, Olam Orchards Australia exports to over 15 global markets.
Situation
The challenges that needed addressing.
Invisible costs
Almond hulls, comprising over 70% of harvested product, are repurposed as animal feed. The true cost associated with this by-product stream was unclear, limiting the company's ability to make evidence-led decisions about its value.
Invisible insights
An incomplete view of waste streams and processing costs made it difficult to justify capital expenditure decisions or measure the return on investment of operational improvements.
Invisible efficiencies
Harvest efficiency was assumed rather than measured: a percentage of shrinkage was subtracted from what had been grown. Anecdotal understanding, not structured evidence.
Solution
How Empauer helped.
Empauer, RMIT University and the Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre developed Direct, a business-ready tool that quantifies the true cost of waste by mapping where food and non-food material losses flow across the supply chain. Aligned to the FLW Standard and ISO-14051, Direct enabled Olam Orchards Australia to participate in a 2020 pilot study, map material flows and determine the true cost of materials flowing to non-product destinations. Thanks to the system's ease of use, the almond producer was able to gain greater visibility and assess the effectiveness of waste mitigation and valorisation efforts on an ongoing basis.
“Direct is straightforward. Data input is easy to use, all the graphics populate as you go, and it's easy to interpret the results.”
Outcomes
What the work delivered.
True cost of waste, made visible
Almond hulls destined for animal feed generated close to 2% of total plant income, but even with this income offset, the material costs and proportional business expenses incurred a substantial true cost of waste.
Harvest efficiency scenarios
Direct can project returns from efforts aimed at improving harvest efficiency and measure the actual impact of those efforts once implemented.
Capital expenditure insights
Olam could compare capital expenditure scenarios including plant sorters and stick removers, and review return on investment with detailed visibility into costs attributed to waste.
New business opportunities
The analysis identified potential benefit in pivoting almond hulls to new, higher-value co-product destinations, including compostable dinnerware or sugar alternatives for beverages.
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