Dutch chemicals giant DSM will work with the World Food Program as the exclusive partner in the field of food fortification, Dutch paper Het Parool reported Monday.
Feike Sijbesma, member of the DSM Managing Board, announced the deal with the world's largest humanitarian agency in Lyon, France, on Sunday during the biennial BioVision conference on life sciences and biotechnology.
The partnership will focus on improving and increasing nutritious food for people in poor countries and during humanitarian crises. DSM will provide expertise, high-nutrient products and financial assistance to the UN division, which has an annual budget of 3 billion dollars.
"It involves several million euros over a period of three years, " Sijbesma told Het Parool in a phone interview.
"These are no astronomical sums, but our knowledge is worth a lot. The World Food Program called on us with regard to nutrition, because we have the most knowledge in the field," he said.
Addressing the BioVision conference, Sijbesma said the life science industry is able to make a major contribution to fight global malnutrition and hunger, which affect more than 850 million people worldwide.
He emphasized the role companies can play in the realization of the UN Millennium Development Goals, aimed at halving hunger and poverty by 2015.
For six of the eight UN objectives it is crucial that malnutrition and starvation are halted, he said.
As part of its Nutrition Improvement Program, DSM has already developed a rice grain with a high concentration of vitamins and minerals. It is mixed with regular rice to fortify staple diets.
The WFP, the largest provider of food aid to the world's hungry, feeds and nourishes an average of 100 million people in over 80 countries each year.
The WFP had previously signed an agreement with postal company TNT, to be its exclusive partner in terms of logistics support in the fight against acute famine and the efforts to reverse structural malnourishment.
DSM makes a wide range of products, from heavy industrial chemicals to nutritional supplements, drugs and pharmaceutical ingredients, and high-performance materials. The group ranks among the global leaders in many of its fields.
The group registered an annual sales of 8.4 billion euros last year and employs some 22,000 people worldwide.
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