Sunny Verghese, CEO of OLAM and the new Chairman of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) made a deep impression during the 10-year anniversary event of IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative in Utrecht. He had an alarming message: “Our food system is broken. We need to fix it.” According to this remarkable leader, we have another twelve year to do this. He gave an exclusive interview to P+.
Read the full interview in Dutch here.
About IDH he said:
“IDH is very enterprising for a development organization. It is typical for such organizations to become bureaucratic. If you look at the ratio of subsidies versus spending, bureaucracy tends to grow. But IDH is a source of action, aimed at businesses. The organization plays an outstanding role in bringing forces together. In this way, both civil society, financial institutions, governments and policy institutes, plus the business community, feel happy in the partnership. We do many, many projects with IDH. We started with coffee program in Cameroon and Ivory Coast, now we are working on coffee in Laos. We set up a large program in Central America, in Nicaragua, in Peru. We also work together in cashew. We discussed to do so much together that we have transformed our cooperation since this year into a strategic partnership. I am impressed by the will of IDH to take action. I see that this inspires people. and increases productivity. ”
© Jonathan Perugia/Gaia Visual Ltd