COFFEE THAT HELPS FARMERS, THEIR COMMUNITIES & THE ENVIRONMENT.
ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY
Latest news
Ethiopia -
Fair prices and technical assistance
The area has benefited from our payment of fair premium prices in exchange for top quality Arabica coffee beans.
Nestlé UK has provided assistance to help improve farmers' livelihoods through productivity and quality improvements including setting up an eco-friendly, post-harvest treatment system at the Jet washing station.
El Salvador -
Diversify to survive
Both agricultural and animal diversification projects have been well received and have proven to be very successful. 67 demo farms have been set up to show the way forward, and 10,050 chickens and hens have been given to the coffee growers to get them started. 160 fruit plots have also been established, with 2,500 graft fruit trees sowed.
Coffee hasn't been ignored though - many new growers have been trained, and coffee harvesting best practices have been introduced.
MORE INFORMATION
Many coffee farmers across the developing world live in remote, isolated communities with poor transportation links to the areas where the larger coffee stations are based. Instead of being able to deal directly with the buyers, the growers must instead sell at the lower price offered by middlemen who then transport the coffee to market and sell with often exaggerated profit margins.
NESCAFÉ's direct purchase scheme, which operates in seven coffee producing countries, cuts out the middlemen. 14% of all the coffee we purchase is procured through Nestlé buying stations that are open to the farmers themselves.
This ensures that they can retain a much greater percentage of the profit from their crop. It also means they are paid promptly and based on quality rather than quantity, thereby giving them the opportunity to obtain a higher price for their beans.
In the case of NESCAFÉ Partners' Blend, all of the beans we source from El Salvador and Ethiopia are 100% Fairtrade certified. The international criteria for this guarantees that the coffee was obtained at a fair and stable price, with additional resources and support provided to help them improve their lives.
But even by giving these smallholder farmers a fair price for their crop, there is still an obvious difficulty to any farmer or community depending so heavily upon the growing of coffee. The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI-Platform) co-founded by Nestlé, Danone and Unilever in 2001, helps tackle this issue by developing sustainable approaches to coffee growing. Among other things it encourages farmers within developing communities to diversify and widen their income streams, through things like growing alternative crops or keeping livestock.
Taking the traditional growing methods farmers currently use and enhancing them with sympathetic new techniques helps them to produce a better quality crop.
This ensures that they can retain a much greater percentage of the profit from their crop. It also means they are paid promptly and based on quality rather than quantity, thereby giving them the opportunity to obtain a higher price for their beans.
In the case of NESCAFÉ Partners' Blend, all of the beans we source from El Salvador and Ethiopia are 100% Fairtrade certified. The international criteria for this guarantees that the coffee was obtained at a fair and stable price, with additional resources and support provided to help them improve their lives.
But even by giving these smallholder farmers a fair price for their crop, there is still an obvious difficulty to any farmer or community depending so heavily upon the growing of coffee. The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI-Platform) co-founded by Nestlé, Danone and Unilever in 2001, helps tackle this issue by developing sustainable approaches to coffee growing. Among other things it encourages farmers within developing communities to diversify and widen their income streams, through things like growing alternative crops or keeping livestock.
Taking the traditional growing methods farmers currently use and enhancing them with sympathetic new techniques helps them to produce a better quality crop.
NESCAFÉ provides agronomists to work closely with the farmers in many of these regions. They visit farms to advise on suitable approaches, such as diversification, and in some cases may provide the initial crops, animals and materials necessary to help the growers establish diversified farms.
Through working with farmers to help them improve their skills and to improve both the quality and yield of their crop, it ultimately ensures that they get a higher price for their produce over the long term.
As part of Nestlé Agricultural Services we have also established Coffee Experimental and Demonstration Farms in China, Thailand and the Philippines. Thse practical centres of sustainable farming offer farmers, coffee experts and students from Agricultural Institutes access to a variety of training activities and exchange of knowledge between local farmers and trained agronomists. In the field, these same agronomists regularly arrange visits to farms, providing on-site training as well as technical assistance. And, in the case of the more remote farms of southern Thailand, three radio stations broadcast regular Nestlé Coffee Bulletins to pass on expert knowledge to the farmers.
Through working with farmers to help them improve their skills and to improve both the quality and yield of their crop, it ultimately ensures that they get a higher price for their produce over the long term.
As part of Nestlé Agricultural Services we have also established Coffee Experimental and Demonstration Farms in China, Thailand and the Philippines. Thse practical centres of sustainable farming offer farmers, coffee experts and students from Agricultural Institutes access to a variety of training activities and exchange of knowledge between local farmers and trained agronomists. In the field, these same agronomists regularly arrange visits to farms, providing on-site training as well as technical assistance. And, in the case of the more remote farms of southern Thailand, three radio stations broadcast regular Nestlé Coffee Bulletins to pass on expert knowledge to the farmers.
"..in 2001, Nestlé, Danone and Unilever founded the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI-Platform)"
Our concentration on education not only sows the seeds for a sustainable future, it also means that farmers are quickly becoming much better able to grow better quality coffee, and they know what it is worth - putting them in a better bargaining position when selling their produce. In all of these communities, we respect and adhere to the ten ethical principles of The Global Compact, the United Nation's international network of corporations committed to responsible business practices.
"14% of all the coffee we purchase is procured through Nestlé buying stations open to the farmers themselves"
