By Sam De Frates, VP Procurement & Sustainability, Mars Snacking

Supply chain resilience is often discussed in terms of logistics, technology and contingency planning. But for agricultural businesses, resilience can start much further upstream – with the farmer growing the ingredient in the first place.

For Mars, that became clear through one of our most geographically concentrated agricultural supply chains.

Menthol is an important ingredient in many of our chewing gum products, yet around 80% of the world’s natural menthol is produced in Uttar Pradesh, India. As crop yields came under pressure and production costs increased, the viability of mint farming was becoming more challenging for growers – creating a long-term risk for farmers, communities and the supply of natural mint itself.

So we took a longer-term approach to strengthening the system around it.

The result… the Shubh Mint programme, launched in 2017 in partnership with implementation expert Tanager. From the outset, the ambition was to improve outcomes for farmers and communities while strengthening the long-term resilience of the supply chain.

Building resilience from the ground up

The first two years were focused on listening and learning.

Working alongside farming communities, we sought to understand the challenges growers were facing and identify practical interventions that could work in the local context. Rather than asking farmers to immediately change established practices, we created small demonstration plots where new approaches could be tested.

Farmers could see for themselves how improved planting materials and climate-smart farming techniques performed on quarter-acre plots, creating an opportunity for peer learning and allowing people to make their own decisions about whether to adopt them.

That approach mattered. In communities where previous interventions had not always delivered lasting change, building trust was as important as introducing new agricultural techniques.

As confidence grew, the programme expanded beyond individual demonstration plots into a wider community model, supported by Farmer Producer Companies and women’s Self-Help Groups. This helped strengthen local supply chains while creating new opportunities beyond mint farming itself.

Creating shared value

Today, more than 24,000 farmers have participated in the programme, with mint incomes more than doubling through improved productivity, higher-quality planting material and more efficient farming practices.

Women have played an increasingly important role. More than 8,500 women have received training in climate-smart agriculture, while more than 4,500 have participated in financial literacy and confidence-building programmes through Self-Help Groups. More than 1,000 women have subsequently established their own businesses, creating additional sources of income for their families and communities.

The Self-Help Groups have also provided more than 25,000 loans to members for healthcare, education, household needs and businesses.

The changes on the farm have delivered environmental and commercial benefits too. Farmers have adopted practices including improved plant spacing, more efficient irrigation, intercropping and better fertiliser management. Together, these approaches have helped reduce production costs by around 20%, while improving yields and production.

The important point is that these outcomes are connected. Improving farming practices can help reduce costs. Reducing costs can strengthen household income. More resilient farmers can support a more resilient supply base. And a more resilient supply base can ultimately strengthen the business.

From farm investment to commercial supply chain

For us, the real test of a programme like this is whether it can move beyond a standalone sustainability initiative and become part of how the business operates.

After years of investment in the program, we harnessed the expertise and passion from our suppliers, factories and functions like R&D and Marketing, to bring the mint to our products.

We have been able to integrate Shubh-sourced natural menthol into our European chewing gum production in the UK and Poland, creating a functioning, traceable supply chain from farming communities in Uttar Pradesh through to our European operations.

And this is already being brought to life for our consumers through our Airwaves brand, which is famous for menthol being its core ingredient. In Germany, Airwaves packets now highlight this achievement by stating directly on the packaging that the gum is made with 100% ‘natural menthol’.

It is a significant milestone because what began as an effort to address risk around a single agricultural ingredient has become part of our commercial supply chain. Mars is excited about the future of this project, with a goal of integrating Shubh Mint into 100% of Europe’s gum products, as well as looking at opportunities to use Shubh Mint in other markets.

The journey also demonstrates why this kind of work cannot be measured in quarters. It took years of collaboration, testing, learning and trust-building before we could begin integrating Shubh Mint into our commercial operations. That long-term perspective is essential when working with agricultural communities and trying to create change that lasts.

For businesses, there is an important lesson here: resilience cannot always be bought when a disruption happens. In agricultural supply chains, it often has to be built long before the disruption arrives.

The next horizon: from mint to the full farm

The work in Uttar Pradesh is far from finished.

We also want to move beyond a focus on mint towards a “full farm” approach. That means supporting farmers to apply climate-smart practices across their wider range of crops, helping diversify income and reduce reliance on a single crop.

This matters because agricultural resilience is about more than protecting one ingredient. It is about creating the conditions in which farmers can remain economically viable as climate, markets and production conditions change.

The Shubh Mint programme has shown us what can happen when businesses take a long-term view of their supply chains. By investing alongside farmers and partners, we can strengthen the foundations of the supply chain while creating positive outcomes for communities and the environment.

Ultimately, resilient supply chains are built through relationships. Behind every ingredient is a farmer, a community and a network of people whose decisions determine whether that supply chain can thrive for the long term.

For businesses sourcing agricultural commodities, that means looking beyond the immediate transaction and asking a bigger question: what needs to be true at farm level for this supply chain to remain viable in the future?

That is where resilience starts.

About the author

Sam De Frates is a procurement leader with 19 years industry and management consulting experience within financial service, Pharmaceutical and CPG. Sam leads Mars’ Snacking European Procurement and Sustainability organisation. The team operates at the exciting intersection between business and suppliers to ensure long-term value and drive Mars’ sustainability goals through innovation and bolstering resilience. Sam De Frates on LinkedIn