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At ABP Food Group, working with and supporting our local communities has been an important part of our business for over 60 years

Standing for Tomorrow, our group-wide CSR programme, includes a number of community, people and sustainability initiatives. ABP is a founding member of Origin Green and is the first company to receive quadruple certification from the Carbon Trust in recognition of the measures we have introduced to reduce our environmental impact.

ABP has also been a strong promoter of farm safety, with particular focus on young people, encouraging them to bring innovative solutions to solve farm safety problems.

Circular Solution to Food Waste

Across the food industry, there is always the question of what to do with waste. We took on the challenge of finding a way to turn what others discard into a resource. This led to the formation of our renewables division Olleco.

Today, Olleco has created an organic recycling initiative that provides a circular solution to the problem of food waste. We collect waste food and used cooking oil from 50,000 food manufacturing, catering and hospitality sector customers across the UK and bring it to our newly-constructed recycling centre.

This features a biodiesel plant, powered by an anaerobic digester, and uses waste food to produce renewable heat and power. This, in turn, is used to run a conversion technology that produces biodiesel from the used oils and fats.

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It’s an example of a successful circular economic model, with the final product saving more than 95% greenhouse gas emissions compared with fossil fuels.

Promoting Agriculture to the Next Generation

The ABP Angus Youth Challenge is a unique initiative where 14- to 16-year-olds in Northern Ireland with an interest in a career in agriculture or agri-food production compete for a prize of raising Aberdeen Angus calves.

Crucially, there is no requirement to live on a farm to take part. The finalists are presented with their Aberdeen Cross calves and rear them with the assistance of ABP through a farm-to-fork skills development programme.

Each team is also assigned a special project to explore innovative and forward-looking techniques and proposals for the future benefit of meat production across the supply chain.

Apart from learning about the intricacies of the beef supply chain, all finalists receive the profits from rearing their calves, and one overall winner wins a bursary for their school.

Farm Safety

As one of Ireland’s leading agri-business companies, ABP is committed to creating awareness and empowering young people, particularly those from rural backgrounds, to advocate for safer farms. ABP’s special farm safety prize at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition encourages children to come up with creative and innovative solutions to farm safety issues on farms.

ABP also hosts a Farm Safety Zone at the three-day event, which is visited by more than 60,000 people each year. The company is also a patron of Embrace Farm, Ireland’s only support network for those impacted by accidents on farms.

Photo: Students who participated in the ABP Angus Youth Challenge 2018