GCP Sustainable Coffee Purchases Snapshot – 4C Certified has the Largest Reported Share
GCP’s snapshot provides insights into sustainable coffee purchases of the leading roasters – 4C certified coffee has the largest reported share
Five leading roasters, Nestlé, JDE, Melitta, Supracafé, and Strauss Coffee, reported their sustainable coffee purchases within the framework of GCP’s “Call to Action to Collectively Address the Coffee Price Crisis”.
GCP has launched a reporting system to encourage open and transparent discussion on sustainable coffee sourcing. The above mentioned roasters demonstrated their unprecedented commitment in revealing their companies’ data to demonstrate their progress.
In total 1,79 million mt of green coffee was purchased, out of which 639,710 mt, or more than 30%, were purchased in line with GCP-recognized sustainability schemes. The majority of reported coffee purchases, or 65.6%, were 4C certified, followed by 12% purchased as 4C-RA double certified[1]. Estimated production of 4C coffee in 2018 was 2.1 million mt with Vietnam, Brazil, and Colombia among the top three origins.
Certification is a vital part of a robust sustainability strategy in the coffee sector. Roasters continue working with sustainability standards in combination with developing their programs, projects, and participating in multi-stakeholder sustainability initiatives.
As highlighted in Melitta’s statement, “only a combination of measures along the value chain, like collaboration with Voluntary Sustainability Standards (e.g. Rainforest Alliance, 4C and Fairtrade), systemic approaches for sustainable regions, qualification and community projects in key coffee growing regions as well as sector engagement, e.g. in GCP, will lead to sustainable success for coffee.”
Another example is Strauss Coffee which focuses on its in-house “More than a Cup” program to support specific themes in gender equality and women empowerment, “while continuing to use 4C as our reliable mainstream certification service“.
We at 4C appreciate roasters‘ efforts towards making the coffee sector more sustainable and hope that companies will increasingly source certified coffee in the future and further support on the ground projects to improve farmer livelihoods. In the meantime, we are determined to make sure that there is a sufficient supply of genuinely sustainable coffee.
[1] Phase-out of Rainforest Alliance certificate recognition was launched in April 2020. For more information, please see System Update No. 5, 6 April 2020, here.
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