Olam Progida Continues to Work on “Empowerment of Women and Children”
“Meeting for Enhancing Cooperation” was held by Olam Progıda and “Foundation for the Support of Women Work” (KEDV) in the context of “Woman Ambassadors of Agriculture” Program. Following the program in the venue, participants visited the Sustainable Esmahanım village organized by Olam Progıda.
Akçakoca District Governor, District Garrison Commander and representatives of Olam Progıda, Minister of Family, Labor and Social Services, local authorities, NGOs, private companies, farmers, seasonal migrant workers participated to the meeting.
Representative of KEDV made the opening speech and gave information about the agenda. Afterwards, Olam Progıda Sustainability Manager, Burcu Turkay gave a speech on Olam’s history starting from 1989. Burcu Turkay stated that the journey of Olam which has started with 1 product, continues today with 47 products and 70.000 employees in 70 countries as a global agri-business company.
Turkay continued her speech: “As Olam Progıda, we have hazelnut cracking facilities and an integrated processing plant in West and East Black Sea region, a sesame and tahini processing facility in Samsun, and a trade office in Mersin for cotton trade. Olam has 23.000 customers worldwide. Olam is behind the coffee you drink, behind the wooden guitar that your children play, mixed nuts you eat; almond, walnut, cashew and hazelnut and so on. Our global vision is “reimagining the global agriculture and the food system. While reimagining the global agriculture, our aim is to increase the livelihoods farmers, thrive communities and to regenerate the living world. Till today, we imagined that all parties such as local authorities, NGOs, private companies, seasonal migrant workers to come together to eliminate child labor for years and today, we are together as 60 participants in this meeting. We have known that the labor contractors are key people in agriculture, and today we, as Olam Progıda and partners certified 165 labor contractors making them part of the registered workforce.
We led the way in Turkey by improving living standards and working conditions of seasonal migrant workers. 52 agricultural contractual agreements were signed first time in Turkey. with these contractual agreements 535 seasonal migrant workers’ rights were protected.
Subsequently, the district Governor in his speech said “We have been carrying out training projects to improve living and working conditions of workers in hazelnut harvest for 5 years. I wish this meeting will be a role model to all of Turkey. I would like to thank all who supported the projects to increase the efficiency with good agricultural practices.”
Later, representatives of diverse institutions made presentations and comments in Q&A session. At the end of the meeting woman ambassadors of agriculture, labor contractors and farmers signed the first “Agricultural Contractual Agreement” of the season to be a role model.
Program ended with a visit to the Sustainable Role Model Esmahanım village to inform the participants regarding the social and agricultural projects that Olam Progıda has implemented.