In 2021, International Coffee Partners (ICP) marks its 20th year supporting smallholder coffee families. In celebration, ICP is hosting an online event on 15 June at 10am CEST, providing attendees a chance to get to know ICP and discuss opportunities to support coffee farmer families.
Titled the ‘Focus on People! How the coffee sector can ensure smallholder families’ livelihoods’, the event will feature panellists such as Kathrine Löfberg, Chairperson of ICP, Giuseppe Lavazza of the Lavazza Group, Gunter Schall of the Austrian Development Agency, and more.
“The impact of our work is a major achievement to highlight how important it is that coffee sector companies work together in a pre-competitive setup,” says Löfberg.
The ICP was formed after the 2001 coffee crises that impacted millions of coffee communities and small farmers. The founding members were coffee companies Lavazza, Löfbergs, Neumann Gruppe, Paulig, and Tchibo with Delta Cafés, Franck, and Joh Johannson joining the not-for-profit partnership later.
The ICP recently updated its Theory of Change, which focuses on adopting a holistic livelihood approach that includes social and environmental issues.
“We do not only implement projects.” says Löfberg. “We focus on the families at the centre of our work, looking at their potentials and needs. Together with them and among the ICP-Shareholders we learn and further develop our approaches and our operations.”
ICP currently supports 100,000 families across 13 coffee producing countries and actively seeks to address coffee production, generate value for farmers, and diversify and increase market access while increasing income and cash flows for coffee farmers.
Teddy Nkyambadda and her family are just one family benefitting from the partnership. Through the ICP, she has learned good agriculture practices as well as business skills to help develop and run her coffee farm.
“Unlocking the potentials of youth, making coffee farming an attractive business opportunity for families, supporting more competitive marketing of coffee through farmer organizations and tackling the multiple impacts of climate change are just some of the issues that we all need to work on together,” says Löfberg.
To learn more about the event or ICP, visit www.coffee-partners.org
