Get a glimpse of Olam's impressive Aussie almond assets

Now that it owns a A$60m plant.

Standard Chartered said that according to the Almond Board of California, almond demand has grown at a four-year CAGR of 12%. Almonds were Olam‟s first major upstream investment following the decision in 2009 to selectively expand upstream and downstream from its supply chain origins. 

In March 2013, Olam commissioned its new AUD 60mn almond processing plant in Australia – complementing its earlier investment in almond orchards and giving it an integrated c.45% share of the Australian almond industry. 

Here's more from Standard Chartered:

Excluding operating and upgrading costs, its total investment in Australian almonds amounts to a not insignificant AUD 348mn (c.12% of group property, plant, equipment and biological assets of SGD 3.6bn as of 31 December 2012). 

Prompted by the completion of the processing plant, our follow-up on-the-ground discussions with operational management for almonds in Australia remind us of Olam‟s many positive facets that we believe have been forgotten during the recent noise.

We also believe the almond cluster acts as both an educator and counter to some of the structural issues raised recently. 

Finally, if the main US almond crop suffers from bee-related pollination issues, as has been recently suggested by some commentators, Olam could be sitting on a very valuable asset.