Jay O’Nien | Sustainability Officer | Bühler Group | mail me |
Across Africa’s food and feed processing sectors, sustainability is increasingly moving to the centre of operational decision-making. Importantly, this shift is not being driven by environmental commitments alone. Instead, many businesses are driving it through more immediate priorities. These priorities include operational efficiency, profitability, resilience and long-term competitiveness.
For processors across the continent, energy costs remain volatile and often high. In addition, water availability is emerging as a significant operational concern across regions. Post-harvest losses also continue to place pressure on profitability and food security.
At the same time, export markets and international buyers are introducing more stringent requirements around traceability, carbon footprint and resource use. Against this backdrop, sustainability is no longer simply about compliance or reputation. Instead, it is increasingly becoming a core business consideration for African food processors.
Our sustainability strategy is built around what we call the “50/50/50” commitment. The goal is to have solutions ready that can reduce energy consumption, waste and water use by 50% across customer value chains. Importantly, many of these technologies already exist today.
Sustainability and operational improvements go hand in hand
As part of our 2025 lifecycle assessment work across 15 industrial value chains in food, feed and advanced materials, we found that reductions of at least 50% were achievable in one or more key environmental dimensions in 11 of those value chains. Furthermore, every assessed value chain could achieve savings of more than 35% in at least one category.
These findings matter because they demonstrate that sustainability improvements often link directly to operational improvements. Lower energy consumption reduces operating expenditure. Better yield reduces raw material loss. Similarly, reduced waste frequently improves process efficiency and increases profitability.
In practice, the most accessible opportunities for African processors lie in fundamental operational areas. These include drying efficiency, grain storage, yield optimisation, energy monitoring, process control and waste reduction. Each area offers meaningful potential returns.
For example, improved storage and drying infrastructure can significantly reduce post-harvest food losses. This issue has both economic and food security implications across the continent.
Yield improvement is particularly important because it creates both economic and environmental benefits. Every tonne of raw material lost during processing wastes land, water, energy, fertiliser, logistics and labour upstream in the value chain. Therefore, improving process efficiency helps reduce environmental impact while strengthening commercial performance.
Importantly, sustainability adoption in Africa is not uniform. Conditions vary significantly between countries, sectors, and processors. Access to reliable and affordable energy remains a challenge in numerous markets. In addition, financing constraints can make capital-intensive upgrades difficult to prioritise. Water stress also continues to affect both agricultural production and industrial operations in several regions.
Reliable baseline data is critical
One of the less discussed challenges is measurement itself. Without reliable baseline data on energy consumption, water use, waste generation or yield loss, processors struggle to identify improvement opportunities. They also struggle to build a credible investment case for change.
As a result, digitalisation and data-driven optimisation are becoming increasingly important. Measurement forms the foundation of sustainability improvement. Even relatively modest monitoring systems can provide processors with valuable operational visibility. Once businesses understand where inefficiencies exist, they can justify and implement targeted interventions far more easily.
Beyond monitoring, digital process optimisation can improve thermal and mechanical efficiency in real time. As a result, processors can simultaneously reduce energy use and minimise yield loss. Increasingly, African food processors also require structured sustainability data to satisfy customers, financiers, investors and regulators. However, sustainability in food processing is not only about technology. Operator knowledge and process understanding remain essential.
The same equipment can produce very different outcomes when operators use different conditions. These outcomes affect energy efficiency, waste levels and throughput. In most cases, processors can achieve meaningful improvements without major capital expenditure. They can do so by optimising existing assets and improving operational practices.
Training and knowledge transfer remain central
This reality explains why training and knowledge transfer remain central to our approach globally. Through our network of Research and Training Centres, we work closely with processors. Together, we identify resource losses, optimise process parameters and improve operational performance.
Partnerships are equally important. No single company can solve sustainability challenges across an entire value chain. In the African context specifically, collaboration between processors, technology providers, development finance institutions, governments and industry bodies will be essential to scaling progress.
Encouragingly, momentum is already building. Across African markets, we are seeing growing interest in solutions that improve both operational resilience and environmental performance. In some cases, export market requirements are accelerating this trend. In others, the direct commercial realities of energy pricing, raw material costs and supply chain risk are driving it. Consequently, more African food processors are exploring practical sustainability investments that deliver measurable business value.
We believe sustainability and profitability are not opposing objectives. Instead, the two are increasingly interconnected. A more resource-efficient processing industry is also a more resilient and competitive one. This is particularly relevant for African food processors operating in increasingly demanding local and international markets.
In conclusion
We continue investing heavily in innovation, research, training and partnerships. These efforts focus on reducing environmental impact across food and materials value chains.
Ultimately, the greatest impact will not come from isolated pilot projects or sustainability reporting frameworks alone. Instead, it will come from the widespread adoption of practical, scalable solutions. These solutions must improve both business performance and environmental outcomes.
For Africa’s food systems, that opportunity is significant. A more efficient processing sector is better positioned to improve sustainability performance. It can also support food security, economic growth and long-term resilience for a rapidly growing population.
