Nescafe continues to champion global coffee trade practices through its membership in the newly-organized Common Code for Coffee Community (4C) Association.
“As the leader in the coffee industry, we are at the forefront in the promotion of globally-accepted practices,” says Bruno Olierhoek, Nestle business executive manager for the coffee business unit.
The 4C Association counts as its members stakeholders in the coffee production, trade and industry, civil society, and public organizations.
“We are not only concerned with issues that affect us, but those that involve the other industry stakeholders who in one way or another affect coffee production,” Olierhoek adds.
The 4C Association outlines its mission as the following: “The efficient production and processing of coffee, combined with respect for the social and environmental conditions of its production, from the basis for improving the situation of coffee growers and workers worldwide.”
This is done through incentives that are “designed to optimize transparency and traceability along the whole coffee chain and to increase the awareness of individual responsibilities in the production, processing and trading of coffee.”
4C-initiated projects have been done in the coffee-producing countries of Colombia, Brazil, Guatemala and Ethiopia. Ongoing projects are being done in El Salvador, Ethiopia, Honduras and Vietnam.
Here in the Philippines, Nescafe has the Coffee-Based Sustainable Farming System (CBSFS) program and the Nestle Experimental and Demonstration Farm (NEDF) — 4C-related programs that were initiated even before the establishment of 4C.
CBSFS helps farmers increase their income by encouraging the planting of other crops alongside coffee, while the NEDF is a training center in Davao that reinforces the importance of good crop management as well as provides farmers with quality and high-yielding Robusta coffee planting materials.
To date, the NEDF provides 80 percent of all Robusta cuttings in the Philippines, with Nescare currently sourcing its coffee from around 100,000 Filipino coffee farmers and 300,000 farm workers.
Nescafe is likewise at the forefront of the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) platform in both Europe (through its mother company, Nestle Switzerland, S.A.) and the Philippines. The platform lays the groundwork for sustainable agriculture practices.