Five leading coffee companies have reported the volumes and origins of their sustainable coffee purchases in the first edition of Global Coffee Platform’s (GCP) Sustainable Coffee Purchases Snapshot 2018.
GCP Executive Director Annette Pensel says the five participating companies – Jacobs Douwe Egberts, Melitta, Nestlé, Strauss Coffee, and Supracafé – have taken a “clear and confident step to support global progress in sustainable coffee sourcing”.
The snapshot was released in response to GCP’s 2019 Call to Action to Collectively Address the Coffee Price Crisis. It says the snapshot demonstrates leadership in providing more transparent data for the sector to collaboratively assess and encourage continual increases in sustainable coffee purchasing from a wide diversity of origins.
“We respect this transparency and are proud to be able to offer insights from committed GCP Members who are working to increase their sustainability investment impact by showing their purchases of sustainable coffees in the GCP Sustainable Coffee Purchases Snapshot 2018,” Pensel says.
The snapshot provides a look at volumes of sustainable coffee purchases by company under multiple GCP Baseline Coffee Code-recognised sustainability schemes. It includes the top 10 coffee origins sourced from and is the first report of its kind to be published by GCP.
“GCP believes that the economic viability of coffee farming is key to ensuring sustainable livelihoods and a living income in coffee producing communities throughout the world,” Pensel says.
“However, low and volatile international coffee prices have continued to cause damage to the viability of sustainable coffee production. The COVID-19 pandemic has compounded the challenges being faced by coffee-producing communities and has further negatively impacted many parts of the coffee sector.”
Given the seriousness of the issue, Pensel says it was only through urgent and collective action that the crisis could be addressed. She says the openly aligned reporting contained in the report is a powerful example of one way GCP Members are cooperating to meet the coffee sustainability challenge.
“GCP Members believe sustainability is a shared responsibility and we are truly excited to see this conviction move from theory into action,” Pensel says.
“We are deeply impressed by the leadership role these companies have taken to spur progress and we encourage and invite all GCP Roaster and Retailer Members, as well as signatories of the [International Coffee Organization] London Declaration, to join in GCP’s emerging Sustainable Purchase Reporting Program. This aligned reporting process is a powerful tool to encourage greater sector transparency and increase strategic sustainable coffee sourcing from diverse origins.”
The next round of reporting on 2019 purchases is envisaged to start in November 2020.
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