Impact, risk, and opportunity management
In 2025, the global nutrition and hunger crisis remained deeply concerning, shaped by persistent conflict, climate extremes, economic instability, and displacement.
According to the 2025 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, between 638 and 720 million people — up to 8.8% of the global population — faced hunger in 2024, with 2.3 billion experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity. While some regions have seen modest recovery, hunger continues to rise in Africa and Western Asia.
The 2025 Lancet Countdown underscores that climate-related disruptions and systemic inequities are undermining progress toward global nutrition targets, particularly in low-income countries, and warns that without urgent action, the world remains off track to meet Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger by 2030.
The affordability of healthy diets remains a major barrier to improved nutrition. In 2025 2.55 billion people could not afford a healthy diet, with the global average cost reaching USD 4.50 per person per day in purchasing power parity. Although some regions saw slight improvements due to rising incomes, affordability worsened in sub-Saharan Africa and other low-income countries, where food price inflation continues to outpace overall inflation. The 2025 EAT-Lancet Commission estimates that more than half of the global population lacks regular access to nutritious diets, highlighting the urgent need for systemic transformation of food systems to ensure equity, sustainability, and health. Without coordinated investment and policy action, millions remain at risk of malnutrition and its long-term consequences.
Actions and resources
Amid growing global challenges, dsm-firmenich has strengthened partnerships with leading organizations while mobilizing internal expertise and resources.
Partnerships for nutrition and health
It is in this harsh context that dsm-firmenich reinforced its partnerships with global partners -including the World Food Programme (WFP), the Gates Foundation (GF), and World Vision International and continued its engagement with Africa Improved Foods.
These partnerships do not only address urgent humanitarian needs but also lay the foundation for long-term, sustainable impact. Through a combination of scientific expertise, innovation, and strategic advocacy, dsm-firmenich continues to support solutions that deliver immediate relief while advancing quality nutrition systems that endure beyond crisis.
In 2025, the partnerships were supported by in-kind, direct and indirect financial contributions close to €2 million a year and have been managed by a team within Group Sustainability in close collaboration with relevant Business Units (such as the HNC Nutrition Improvement team) and Business Partners (such as Human Resources and Group Communications).
UN World Food Programme (WFP)
Since 2007, dsm-firmenich and WFP have combined their strengths: our leading scientific and technological nutrition expertise, and WFP’s global reach and deep experience supporting vulnerable populations. Together, we have helped improve the diets and lives of tens of millions through innovative nutrition and fortification solutions.
One of the most effective strategies we have advanced is food fortification: enhancing commonly consumed staples with essential micronutrients. This approach is not only cost-effective and culturally sensitive, but also a vital climate adaptation measure, especially in regions where climate change and biodiversity loss have reduced dietary diversity and access to nutritious, locally produced food.
A key example is rice fortification: the partnership has supported the inclusion of fortified rice in national social protection programs, such as school meals, helping ensure consistent access to nourishing food. To date, these efforts have contributed to expanding production, availability, and consumption of fortified rice in over 20 countries, indirectly reaching more than 730 million people annually.
In addition to rice fortification, the partnership latest data impact from 2024, indicate that the following was achieved:
Reached 30.2 million people with fortified and nutritious food products enhanced by the partnership
Reached 23.6 million people through rice fortification and retail projects in the context of WFP country programs (15% increase from 2023)
An additional 720 million people received fortified rice through social protection programs in countries that were previously in the partnership (44% increase from 2023)
Reached 8.5 million individuals via social behavior change (SBC) activities (77% increase from 2023)
Approximately 1,300 retailers, community leaders, health workers, and school staff were trained on rice fortification cooking practices, promotion, and/or stock/business management.
Strengthened food systems by providing technical support to 421 millers to produce fortified rice and maize flour (83% increase from 2023)
Drove sustainable progress toward eradicating malnutrition by combining innovation with a systemic approach
It is important to note that since early 2025 the partnership has been operating in an increasingly strained humanitarian landscape, marked by severe funding reductions and escalating crises across multiple regions. WFP faced a 40% drop in funding, which risks pushing up to 13.7 million people from crisis into emergency levels of hunger, with ration reductions, suspended meal programs, and pipeline breaks threatening the lives of the most vulnerable.
Amid these challenges, dsm-firmenich reaffirmed its commitment to the partnership, a message strongly conveyed during a joint field visit to the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya in November 2024. The visit was followed by a global dsm-firmenich townhall in March 2025, where Rania Dagash-Kamara, WFP’s Assistant Executive Director for Partnerships and Resource Mobilization, shared compelling insights into the critical role of the partnership in sustaining nutrition efforts during this time of unprecedented need.
The partnership with WFP focuses on the following workstreams:
Reaching the most vulnerable at scale, which entails increased integration of fortified staples into institutional demand and humanitarian programs
Strengthening impact by improving the quality of fortified staples
Identifying potential innovative solutions to further address micronutrient deficiencies
This new partnership initiatives aims to impact more than 60 million people in four regions and 32 countries by 2027.
In 2025, the partnership delivered impact at both policy and implementation levels. At the policy level, it supported the development of rice fortification standards and quality monitoring guidelines in Kenya and Nigeria, reinforcing national frameworks for improved nutrition. On the ground, pilots introducing fortified rice in school feeding program in Cambodia and fortified wheat flour in Tajikistan, alongside trainings and technical trials with millers were initiated.
World Vision International
Our partnership with World Vision International has focused on developing an affordable and sustainable Multiple Micronutrient Supplementation MMS value chain to contribute to the improvement of the nutritional status of pregnant and lactating women in the Philippines. Together with World Vision International and Sight and Life, we worked on the co-creation of a viable, repeatable and scalable MMS project model with the support of the Philippines Government. Following the project baseline in 2024, the MMS were delivered in-country and the distribution to 1,859 women in four remote pilot locations kicked off. This pilot required the training of more than 151 health workers to ensure the proper distribution, monitoring and data collection for the project. In parallel, the project team has been engaging with government bodies and other relevant stakeholders to ensure mainstream access to MMS after the pilot phase, through national maternal health and nutrition programs.
Africa Improved Foods (AIF)
AIF is a social enterprise with the mission of helping people in Rwanda and the wider region achieve their full potential by producing high-quality nutritious foods from local ingredients.
AIF was launched in 2016 in Rwanda as a public private partnership between the Government of Rwanda and a consortium comprising the former DSM, the Dutch Development Bank, DFID Impact Acceleration Facility managed by CDC Group plc, and the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group.
2025 was a difficult year, globally, for the battle against hunger and malnutrition. The need grew within Africa, but traditional funding sources were considerably down. The AIF team, meanwhile, ensured that they remained a responsible player in the sector, working to find other avenues to fund the production and distribution of their products. In parallel, AIF remained engaged with WFP and other agencies to secure orders from them to the extent possible within this new funding reality. As a caring employer, AIF did its utmost to avoid forced attrition and meet social commitments with farming communities and service providers despite these adverse pressures.
The Gates Foundation
The Gates Foundation shares our goal of helping women and children receive the nutrition they need to live healthy, productive lives. We collaborate on a number of initiatives that seek to increase the availability, access, quality, and compliance of large-scale food fortification.
One example is the Millers for Nutrition (M4N) coalition, where we are a founding member. M4N supports millers in fortifying staple foods such as rice, edible oil, and flour across eight countries to combat micronutrient deficiencies. countries to combat micronutrient deficiencies. Through M4N, we provide technical support to millers and partners to help improve access to quality premix and ensure compliance with national standards. As of 2025, 750 millers have joined the coalition, reaching over 560 million people with fortified staple foods. The coalition aims to reach 1 billion people by the end of 2026.
Other joint initiatives include DFQT+ (Digital Fortification Quality Traceability Plus), a digital system that tracks micronutrients from production through consumption to strengthen quality and accountability. We also collaborate on a bouillon fortification project in West Africa, using widely consumed bouillon cubes to deliver essential vitamins and minerals and reduce micronutrient deficiencies.
Metrics and targets
Building on our industry‑leading capabilities in nutrition science and innovation, dsm‑firmenich develops scalable solutions — including micronutrient powders, public‑health supplements, and staple food fortification — to improve access to essential vitamins and minerals. By fortifying everyday foods such as flour, oil, and rice, and working in close partnership with governments, non‑governmental organizations, and the private sector, we aim to extend these solutions to one billion people by 2030 (annually, not cumulatively), helping to combat hidden hunger and micronutrient deficiencies worldwide. The methodology for measuring progress towards our target will incorporate the upcoming ANH separation, which will lead to the carve-out of our vitamin A production.
Through our nutrition improvement segment, acting both independently and through our partnerships, we reached 775 million people in 2025 around the world. More information with regard to the methodology can be found in Appendix to the Sustainability Statements. Additional information on the impact of our products and solutions can be found in Health, Nutrition & Care.