Our Global Sourcing Program encourages our supplier base to create partnerships with farmers by providing them with a regular demand for high quality raw materials. We empha- size the need for producing high value products and educating farmers on ways to better manage the harvest, storage and integrity of their products.
We have well-established supply lines in our source countries. These are comprised of joint ventures in India and Indonesia, key strategic alliances in major spice-growing countries, and a network of over 150 other suppliers. Our joint venture in Indonesia has a Board of Directors that includes twelve members each representing a specific agricultural co-op that grows and sells spices to the joint venture. Through this contact we work directly with the many small farmers on improved techniques to harvest, dry, and store their product. Our sourcing joint ventures and strategic alliances employ over one thousand employees, providing them with regular year-round work, good wages, medical assistance, and opportunity to advance.
McCormick prides itself on working at the source in developing countries to establish quality suppliers with strong ties to the farming community. We realize that this is a long process that requires patience and perseverance. For example, in the late 1960s we encouraged farmers in Uganda to grow high quality vanilla beans as a new and better source of income. Shortly after the start-up, dictator Idi Amin destroyed the new farming activity. In the early 1990s after Amin’s demise, McCormick went back into Uganda to help the local farmers revive the vanilla business.
Today, it is a robust business employing hundreds of local farmers and producing excellent, high quality vanilla.