JDE Peet’s and global sustainability platform Enveritas have entered into an agreement with Papua New Guinea (PNG)’s Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC) to implement a scheme with the PNG coffee industry.
The scheme will enable Enveritas to verify that the coffee industry in PNG does not export coffee grown in land deforested after 2020, as required by the new European Union Deforestation Regulation.
The announcement was made by CIC CEO Charles Dambui, JDE Peet’s VP of Sustainability Laurent Sagarra, and Enveritas CEO David Browning.
“We are honoured to work closely with PNG and Enveritas to ensure our consumers can continue to enjoy uninterrupted access to PNG’s globally distinctive coffee while contributing to stopping coffee related deforestation, mitigating climate change risks and protecting smallholder farmers,” says Sagarra.
The regulation was designed to ensure that European citizens are not contributing to deforestation and biodiversity loss through the products that they buy and consume.
“CIC had become extremely concerned that the PNG coffee sector would not be ready in time for this year’s harvest. The EU is an important market for PNG coffee producers, and the loss of this high-value destination would have created considerable hardship for smallholder coffee farmers,” says Dambui.
Papua New Guinea will be the first coffee producing nation in the world to have its entire coffee lands assessed as being deforestation-free using Enveritas’ territorial approach.
Enveritas’ territorial approach will monitor all of PNG’s coffee lands through a combination of high-resolution satellite imagery, machine learning, and teams on the ground. A protocol developed by CIC will ensure that any coffee which is found to be in contravention of the new regulation is removed from the supply chain. Once removed, JDE Peet’s will work with the farmers to reforest the land.
“We are excited to work with the PNG government to protect the livelihoods of coffee farmers while also helping to preserve the unique environment and biodiversity of PNG for future generations,” says Browning.
To date, JDE Peet’s has signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with Ethiopia, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, and Uganda, and expects to sign MOUs with additional coffee producing countries over the next several months.
“At JDE Peet’s, we are committed to delivering sustainable growth that creates both shareholder return and societal value,” says JDE Peet’s CEO Fabien Simon. “This means making sure our supply chain is inclusive, regenerative, and authentic, which is exactly what our Common Grounds sustainability programme is designed to do.
“I am excited that this innovative new program, which is fully aligned with the EU’s Regulation on Deforestation-free products, will ensure continued access to the EU market for the millions of smallholder farmers we work with around the world.”
