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Rainforest
Alliance Signs Agreements with Two
Largest Coffee Brokers
In a move that could have
far-reaching effects on the US and
global coffee markets, the environmental
group the Rainforest Alliance announced
it has signed agreements with the
world's two largest coffee trading
companies, Neumann Kaffee Gruppe and
Volcafe Group.
The Rainforest Alliance
and these major brokers will ramp up
cooperation on meeting rigorous
standards for environmentally and
socially sustainable coffee production
around the world.
The announcement was made at a recent
Rainforest Alliance sustainable coffee
awards dinner in New York, which brought
together coffee growers, traders,
roasters and retailers from around the
world, each receiving honors for their
efforts to incorporate sustainable
practices.
Coffee is the second largest commodity
trade after oil, and its production
involves some 25 million farmers around
the world. The Rainforest Alliance
Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) seek
sustainability along the entire coffee
supply chain "from farm to
cup," helping to bridge the gap
between certified sustainable coffee
farms and consumers around the world.
Traders are an important part of that
bridge, connecting farmers to roasters
who in turn sell to supermarkets, coffee
shops and consumers. Traders help seek
out, buy and transfer certified coffee
to buyers large and small.
Volcafe and
Neumann together serve about 25% of the
global market, from the smallest to the
largest roasters. The MOUs between the
Rainforest Alliance and these two major
traders cover various forms of
cooperation from consulting on best
practices and standards in producing
countries to co-branding and marketing
agreements in consumer markets.
"The MOU between the Rainforest
Alliance and Volcafe formally
establishes the groundwork for jointly
pushing sustainability along the coffee
supply chain," said Paul Moeller,
CEO of Volcafe Group, as he accepted a
Rainforest Alliance sustainability
award. "Our subsidiaries in 16
countries are already working with the
Rainforest Alliance on implementation
and certification of several farms and
mills. We have proof that conservation
of the coffee belt's biodiversity and
business are perfectly compatible."
"The sustainable coffee trend,
which reaches into every corner of the
consumer world, is the greatest chance
coffee has had in many years," said
Michael Neumann, Chairman of Neumann
Kaffee Gruppe, which co-chaired the
Rainforest Alliance sustainable coffee
awards dinner. "Let us approach it
pre-competitively and cooperatively.
Eventually, it will not only remake the
difficult lives of innumerable
smallholder and commercial farmers and
the environment in which they live, but
also prove to consumers worldwide that
the entire coffee community wishes to
act in a truly responsible manner."
On coffee producing farms, closer
cooperation and the certified
designation will mean more forest
preservation and habitat-protecting
coffee plantations as opposed to
chemical-intensive, clear-cut, open-field plantations, which
produce a higher quantity but inferior
quality of coffee. These full-sun
plantations quickly become monoculture
deserts for local flora and fauna.
Sustainability certification also means
certified better working and living
conditions, healthcare, education and
other benefits for coffee workers.
The Rainforest Alliance developed
standards for sustainability in
collaboration with the Sustainable
Agriculture Network (SAN), a coalition
of nine leading Latin American
conservation groups that the Rainforest
Alliance coordinates. The Rainforest
Alliance and its partners send out field
specialists to consult with farmers on
incorporating environmentally and
socially sustainable practices.
Operations that meet SAN standards may
use the Rainforest Alliance seal of
approval on their packaging, which helps
their products stand out in the
marketplace.
Neumann and Volcafe are currently
involved in sustainable coffee projects
in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic,
Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico,
Nicaragua, Peru and Uganda, with many
more under development.
Both Neumann and Volcafe sponsor
programs in coffee producing communities
as well as research into sustainability
issues. Volcafe, for example, is
demonstrating coffee farm reforestation
methodologies in Costa Rica and Neumann
is developing guidelines for sustainable
coffee farming in Mexico, which will be
applied to other Neumann farming
operations in South America and Africa.
Increasingly, stakeholders in the coffee
market find that supporting the growth
of such sustainable operations is in
their own interests, since it helps
reverse the trend towards
chemical-intensive, full-sun coffee
farming that has wrought havoc with the
world coffee market in recent years. As
oversupply and lower quality products
from unsustainable farms hit the market,
they help create price volatility which
destroys the profit margins and reliable
planning horizons all growers need to
survive. As a result, many growers --
large and small -- have had to abandon
their farms, and revenue from coffee
exports worldwide has sharply declined.
Like farmers, coffee traders also feel
the pinch of price shifts as coffee is
sold by paper investors far from the
farms, just like stocks and bonds. But
the big trading companies can help
growers ride out price volatility by
offering services such as bridge
financing, helping smallholders
aggregate supply and other services.
Beyond the ethical appeal of supporting
sustainable coffee farms, providing
better quality of life for workers and
more habitat for wildlife, competitive
advantages of sustainably sourced coffee
include consistently higher quality,
which is a strong selling point for
distributors, roasters and consumers and
lends itself to marketing as specialty
or gourmet coffee.
But, there are many challenges in
helping farmers meet social and
environmental standards and in getting
certified coffee from the farms to the
consumers.
"That's where we come in,"
said Rainforest Alliance marketing
director Sabrina Vigilante. "Our
standards help farmers adopt good
management practices. And, we offer
sustainable growers a strong entrée
into the premium markets. When they find
buyers who appreciate their product,
they not only keep their farms, they
have a powerful financial incentive to
stay with sustainable techniques. This
creates a climate in which sustainable
farming techniques catch on, so
multinationals who buy in volume are
more and more likely to find a
sustainable source and less and less
likely to support unsustainable
practices."
These services help keep ecofriendly
coffee growers in business, help reverse
the trend towards chemical-intensive
industrial-scale production of
lower-quality coffee, and actually help
place sustainably sourced, higher
quality beans in premium markets. In
this way the Rainforest Alliance and its
partners hope to have a stabilizing
effect on a large share of the global
coffee market while nudging it in a
greener direction.
Volcafe Group
The Switzerland-based Volcafe is one of
the world's two leading coffee trading
companies, operating 68 coffee mills,
and buying coffee from nearly every
producing country.
Volcafe has improved
housing for hundreds of coffee families
in Colombia and Costa Rica, built health
clinics and a communication center in
Costa Rica, built schools in Nicaragua
and Guatemala, invested in farm
improvements in various countries and
created reforestation projects in
Ethiopia.
The Rainforest Alliance
honored Volcafe for leadership in
demonstrating that sustainability is not
a niche idea, it is an essential element
in mainstream trade.
Neumann Kaffee Gruppe (NKG)
Neumann Kaffee Gruppe (NKG) is one of
the two largest coffee trading companies
in the world. The group is dedicated to
responsible business approaches and the
promotion of solutions towards
sustainability in the green coffee
sector.
In addition to its own
international network, NKG has
established International Coffee
Partners (ICP), a nonprofit organization
founded in 2001, which aims to bring
together the leading coffee companies in
their respective markets and thousands
of small farmers with the goal of
building sustainability into the supply
chain.
ICP's projects are real hands-on
approaches that are being implemented in
cooperation with international
development organizations under the
concept of public-private partnerships.
NKG is cooperating with prominent
international organizations such as the
German development bank - GTZ, the
European Union, the International Coffee
Organization as well as member
organizations of the United Nations.
They work together to improve living
conditions and overall quality of life
for thousands of small farmers, as well
as their business performance and market
position.
The Rainforest Alliance's Sustainable
Coffee Program
The Rainforest Alliance and its partners
in the Sustainable Agriculture Network
developed Rainforest Alliance Certified
coffee to provide market incentives for
social and environmental improvements on
farms. Farms that meet the comprehensive
standards receive the Rainforest
Alliance certification seal, which is
used to distinguish their product in the
marketplace. In conjunction with partner
groups throughout the region, the
Rainforest Alliance certifies coffee in
Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua,
Panama, and Costa Rica.
The Rainforest Alliance coordinates the
Sustainable Agriculture Network of Latin
American nonprofit organizations, whose
mission is to integrate productive
agriculture, biodiversity conservation,
and human development. The Rainforest
Alliance and its network partners
certify coffee, bananas, cocoa, and
citrus according to internationally
accepted environmental and social
standards.
The mission of the Rainforest Alliance
is to protect endangered ecosystems and
the people and wildlife that live within
them by transforming land-use practices,
business practices, and consumer
behavior.
For more information, visit
www.rainforest-alliance.org or call
Stephen Kent, Kent Communications,
845-758-0097, or Kristen Earls,
Rainforest Alliance, 646-452-1961.
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