By Jay O’Nien, Sustainability Officer, Bühler Group
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. In many cases, it is being driven by something far more immediate: operational efficiency, profitability, resilience, and long-term competitiveness.
For processors across the continent, energy costs remain volatile and often high. Water availability is emerging as a significant operational concern in across regions. Post-harvest losses continue to place pressure on both 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. It is increasingly becoming a core business consideration.
At Bühler, our sustainability strategy is built around what we call the “50/50/50” commitment: our goal to have solutions ready that can reduce energy consumption, waste, and water use by 50% across customer value chains. The important point is that many of these technologies already exist today.
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. In every assessed value chain, more than 35% savings were achievable in at least one category.
Sustainability and operational improvements go hand in hand
These findings matter because they demonstrate that sustainability improvements are often directly linked to operational improvements. Lower energy consumption means lower operating expenditure. Better yield means less raw material loss. Reduced waste frequently translates into improved process efficiency and higher profitability.
In practice, the most accessible opportunities for African processors lie in fundamental operational areas. Drying efficiency, grain storage, yield optimisation, energy monitoring, process control, and waste reduction all offer meaningful potential returns. Improved storage and drying infrastructure, for example, can significantly reduce post-harvest food losses, an issue with 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 represents wasted land, water, energy, fertiliser, logistics, and labour upstream in the value chain. Improving process efficiency therefore 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. Financing constraints can make capital-intensive upgrades difficult to prioritise. Water stress 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, it becomes difficult for processors to identify where improvements are possible or to build a credible investment case for change.
As a result, digitalisation and data-driven optimisation are becoming increasingly important. Measurement is the foundation of sustainability improvement. Even relatively modest monitoring systems can provide processors with valuable operational visibility. Once businesses understand where inefficiencies exist, targeted interventions become far easier to justify and implement.
Beyond monitoring, digital process optimisation can improve thermal and mechanical efficiency in real time, helping processors simultaneously reduce energy use and minimise yield loss. Increasingly, 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 operated under different conditions can produce very different outcomes in terms of energy efficiency, waste levels, and throughput. In most cases, processors can achieve meaningful improvements without major capital expenditure simply by optimising existing assets and improving operational practices.
Training and knowledge transfer remain central
This is one reason why training and knowledge transfer remain central to Bühler’s approach globally. Through our network of Research and Training Centers, we work closely with processors to 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, this is being accelerated by export market requirements. In others, it is being driven by the direct commercial realities of energy pricing, raw material costs, and supply chain risk.
At Bühler, we believe sustainability and profitability are not opposing objectives. The two are increasingly interconnected. A more resource-efficient processing industry is also a more resilient and competitive one.
Bühler’s global sustainability journey
Globally, our own sustainability journey reflects this philosophy. Bühler has reduced Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 30% compared to our 2019 baseline and reduced energy consumption across our operations by 19%. At the same time, we continue investing heavily in innovation, research, training, and partnerships focused 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. It will come from widespread adoption of practical, scalable solutions that improve both business performance and environmental outcomes.
For Africa’s food systems, that opportunity is significant. A more efficient processing sector is not only better positioned to improve sustainability performance, but also to support food security, economic growth, and long-term resilience for a rapidly growing population.
Media contacts:
Taryn Browne, Head of Marketing, Southern Africa
Bühler (Pty) Ltd.
Bühler Southern Africa
Phone: +27 11 801 3500
Mobile: +27 66 307 4618
E-mail: taryn.browne@buhlergroup.com
Dalen Jacomino Panto, Media Relations Manager
Bühler AG, 9240 Uzwil, Switzerland
Phone: +41 71 955 37 57
Mobile: +41 79 900 53 88
E-mail: dalen.jacomino_panto@buhlergroup.com
Katja Hartmann, Media Relations Manager
Bühler AG, 9240 Uzwil, Schweiz
Mobile: +41 79 483 68 07
E-mail: katja.hartmann@buhlergroup.com
About Bühler
Bühler is driven by its purpose of creating innovations for a better world, balancing the needs of economy, humanity, and nature in all its decision-making processes. Billions of people come into contact with Bühler technologies as they cover their basic needs for food and mobility every day. Two billion people each day enjoy foods produced on Bühler equipment; and one billion people travel in vehicles manufactured using parts produced with Bühler solutions. Countless people wear eyeglasses, use smart phones, and read newspapers and magazines – all of which depend on Bühler process technologies and solutions. As a technology partner with this global relevance, Bühler is in a unique position to help unlock new pathways to profitable sustainability and, through its solutions and services, turn global challenges into opportunities.
For this reason, in 2019, Bühler committed to having the solutions ready to multiply that reduce energy, waste, and water by 50% in the value chains of its customers. In 2025, it established that in 11 of the key 15 value chains, reductions of at least 50% are feasible in one or more key environmental dimensions. Across all value chains, savings of more than 35% are achievable in at least one category. The company is now focused on driving adoption and scaling these solutions further to multiply impact. In its own operations, Bühler has developed a pathway to achieve a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 (Greenhouse Gas Protocol Scopes 1 & 2, against a 2019 baseline).
Bühler spends up to 5% of its turnover on research and development annually to improve both the commercial and sustainability performance of its solutions, products, and services. In 2025, the company employed 12,090 people who generated a turnover of CHF 2.8 billion. As a Swiss family-owned company with a history spanning 166 years, Bühler is active in over 140 countries around the world and operates a global network of 105 service stations, 27 manufacturing sites, and research and training centers in 26 locations.
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