4C at the Asian Coffee Conference, December 2018

Gustavo Bacchi – Managing Director 4C Services and Michael von Luehrte Member of the Board 4C Services attended the 24^th Asia International Coffee Conference (AICC) organized by IBC in HCMC/Vietnam from 4^th – 6^th December 2018.  Michael joined a panel discussion moderated by Jose Sette – Executive Director of the ICO – on “Innovative Partnerships and Collaboration Redefining the Approach to Sustainability” citing the importance to include measurable impact assessment in the sustainability schemes. New data technology and analysis as developed by 4C Services is helping to improve the collection and analysis of field data in a more efficient way, with greater coverage and focused audits through satellite imagery and desktop data analysis. The key focus of sustainability schemes must be on the producers – helping to improve agricultural practices, social and environmental standards.

This is a long-term process around continuous improvement, Michael said during the panel discussion: “4C is the largest coffee sustainability scheme covering more than 400.000  farmers in 28 countries”.

One of the topics covered on the panel was the impact of climate change on coffee production – the continued pressure on forests and also hear how the different public and private organizations can work together and coordinate efforts to ensure a more sustainable future of coffee production.  Given continued coffee demand growth, we will need to double/triple green coffee production by 2050 on the same/less land and under the impacts of climate change. This takes a collaborative effort by all partners across the coffee supply chain, and Michael made a pledge of coordinated action to all participants.