Farming Communities

McCormick is deeply engaged with the farming communities where our ingredients are grown. These strong ties allow us to improve the reliability and environmental impact of our business while supporting farming communities and increasing their resiliency.

Farmer Resiliency

Our goal is to increase the resilience of 90% of smallholder farmers that grow our key iconic herbs and spices, as measured by increasing skills and capacity, income, access to financial services, education and nutrition and health. We exceeded this goal in 2023 and to date have positively impacted over 53,000 farmers.

McCormick sources high quality herbs and spices grown largely in regions close to the equator. Supporting farming communities through training and social impact projects is paramount to the resilience of our supply chain and to our business. Our approach supports the prioritization of partnerships with in-country suppliers and partners, which enables the company to proactively identify the most pressing needs of the farming communities we source from. It is also a powerful way to monitor and assess potential human rights risks and opportunities. Through these local partnerships, McCormick can identify and implement projects that have the greatest impact on community resiliency. In partnership with suppliers and donors, McCormick has co-invested over 17 million USD globally in projects to support farmer resilience. For instance, fluctuations in the price of raw vanilla beans had the potential to negatively impact smallholder farmers, therefore McCormick supported programs focused on income diversification, the creation of village saving and lending associations and healthcare insurance. In the water-scarce district of Jaisalmer, India, we funded watershed projects in three villages, vastly increasing the capacity of local reservoirs and providing the entire population with sufficient drinking water and water to irrigate their crops, including cumin. We also supported training for over 1,000 cinnamon farmers in Vietnam which led to nearly 5,000 acres of farmland converting to certified organic cultivation and providing enhanced financial opportunities to farmers.

McCormick leads efforts to enhance environmental and social standards in local farming operations through industry groups, such as the Sustainable Spice Initiative (SSI) and Sustainable Vanilla Initiative (SVI). Knowledge sharing and collective action with funding partners, non-governmental organizations, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders will be the key to positive, long-term change within the industry.