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NESCAFÉ continues to champion global coffee trade
practices through its membership in the newly organized Common Code
for Coffee Community (4C) Association.
“As the leader in the coffee
industry, we are at the forefront in the promotion of globally
accepted practices,” says Bruno Olierhoek, Nestlé’s business
executive manager for the coffee business unit.
The 4C Association counts as its
members stakeholders in the coffee production, trade and industry,
civil society, and public organizations.
“We are not only concerned with
issues that affect us, but [also with] industry stakeholders that in
one way or another affect coffee production,” Olierhoek adds.
The 4C Association outlines its
mission as “the efficient production and processing of coffee,
combined with respect for the social and environmental conditions of
its production, form the basis for improving the situation of coffee
growers and workers worldwide.”
This is done through incentives
that are “designed to optimize transparency and traceability along
the whole coffee chain, and to increase the awareness of individual
responsibilities in the production, processing and trading of
coffee.”
4C-initiated projects have
already been done in the coffee-producing countries of Colombia,
Brazil, Guatemala and Ethiopia. Ongoing products are also being done
in El Salvador, Ethiopia, Honduras and Vietnam.
In the Philippines, Nescafé has
the Coffee-Based Sustainable Farming System (CBSFS) program and the
Nestlé Experimental and Demonstration Farm (NEDF) —4C-related
programs that were initiated even before the establishment of 4C.
CBSFS helps farmers increase
their income by encouraging the planting of other crops alongside
coffee, while the NEDF is a training center in Davao that reinforces
the importance of good crop management as well as provides farmers
with quality and high-yielding Robusta coffee planting materials.
To date, the NEDF provides 80
percent of all Robusta cuttings in the Philippines, with Nescafé
currently sourcing its coffee from around 100,000 Filipino coffee
farmers and 300,000 farm workers.
Nescafé is also at the forefront
of the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform in both Europe
(through its mother company, Nestlé Switzerland, SA) and the
Philippines. The platform lays the groundwork for sustainable
agriculture practices.
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