Olam Agri collaborates with the German and Dutch governments to launch a sustainable natural rubber program in Lampung.

Established in 1989, Olam Agri is a leading global agribusiness company focused on the trade and processing of essential food, feed, and fiber products. A subsidiary of Olam Group, it operates across the agricultural value chain, sourcing, processing, and distributing grains, oilseeds, rice, cotton and animal feed ingredients.

Founded in 2011, The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a German development agency that provides international cooperation services for sustainable development.

Gaurav Gupta, Vice President and Head of Rubber Business (Southeast Asia) Olam Agri said the program is a collaboration with GIZ and aims to improve competitiveness, sustainability and market inclusion for 2,000 small-scale rubber farmers. The initiative will also map 42,000 hectares (ha) of land through Global Positioning System (GPS) polygon mapping.

Gupta said this would increase transparency and traceability thereby enhancing the competitiveness of rubber from the region.

"This partnership marks a significant step in our goal to make rubber production in Lampung more productive, more sustainable, and able to respond to international requirements such as the upcoming European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR)," he said on Thursday, March 20, 2025.

Jonas Dallinger, GIZ Implementation Manager for the Sustainable Agriculture for Forest Ecosystems (SAFE) project in Indonesia, said the collaboration ensures the nation’s rubber farmers can benefit from increased access to international markets.

“Partnerships along the supply chain are important to convey market information to producers in the field,” Dallinger said.

He expressed hope that this partnership could contribute to more resilient and sustainable rubber production, while farmer training will follow the Good Agricultural Practices framework.

In addition, this initiative will also strengthen farmer organizations to achieve economies of scale and build grievance mechanisms to improve fairness in the supply chain. 

It will also assist farmers in registering Cultivation Registration Certificates (STDB) to confirm the legality and compliance of their cultivation activities, support traceability and legality of production land and facilitate long-term inclusion in international supply chains.