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Olam International, a leading agribusiness company, said today that it has paid $7.5 million to acquire 100 percent of Schluter S.A., a Swiss-based company that trades in East African coffee. With the acquisition, Olam said Schluter will now become the specialty arm of Olam Coffee in Europe.

“Schluter’s name has been synonymous with fine coffees out of East Africa for generations,” said Vivek Verma, Managing Director/CEO of Olam Coffee. “Their team in Europe will complement Olam’s marketing efforts and further strengthen our reach and relationships with our roaster clients.”
 
Verma said Schluter will fit seamlessly into Olam Coffee’s strategy for three reasons: (1) the Schluter acquisition marks Olam Coffee’s entry into the European speciality coffee market, which will complement the company’s expanding speciality coffee presence in the United States; (2) Schluter will deepen Olam Coffee’s origination expertise in East Africa; and (3) Schluter’s focus on building sustainable supply chains with smallholders is strongly aligned to Olam Coffee’s core purpose of growing responsibly and its pursuit of the Olam Livelihood Charter – the company’s flagship programme that supports smallholder communities worldwide.

Established in 1858, Schluter specialises in trading East African specialty and premium Arabica coffees from countries such as Ethiopia, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Madagascar, and Cameroon. Schluter, which is a founding member of the Speciality Coffee Association in Europe, operates coffee milling facilities in DRC and Burundi in addition to marketing offices in the United Kingdom. The Swiss-based company also runs farmer support programmes funded by European development agencies that involve six nurseries and 1,800 farmers, who are certified suppliers of organic coffees.

“We are a company who has been passionate in the promotion of African coffees and the livelihood of the farmers who produce it,” said Philip Schluter, Schluter’s Managing Director. “We have been at the forefront of the speciality coffee movement in Europe. I am pleased that we have found a market leader like Olam that shares the same goals and aspirations as us in growing the speciality coffee market.”

Founded in 1989, Olam International began its global agricultural commodities trading business in Nigeria. The Singapore-based company operates across the value chain in 70 countries, supplying various products to over 16,200 customers worldwide. Olam is the largest agricultural export company in Nigeria, dealing in the export of cocoa, cashew, sesame, and cotton.