Nespresso will source 10% of its coffee from Fairtrade-certified co-operatives as part of a series of pledges on sustainability.
Under the agreement, announced today, Nespresso will be able to use the Fairtrade mark on coffee sourced from select farmer co-operatives in the region of Caldas, Colombia – comprising some 7,000 small-scale farmers. Nespresso said the programme would provide social welfare provisions to farmers, including health coverage and retirement planning.
“Nespresso’s partnership with Fairtrade is great news for coffee farmers. This encourages the kind of development that not only helps whole communities; it further emphasises the fundamental necessity of ensuring that quality of life of farmers is on a par with the quality of coffee they’re producing,” said Fairtrade International CEO Harriet Lamb.
Nespresso said the agreement coincides with the 10th anniversary of its AAA Sustainable Quality Programme. The AAA Programme covers more than 56,000 smallholder farmers representing 80% of Nespresso’s total coffee volume.
Referring to the agreement, CEO of Nestlé Nespresso Jean-Marc Duvoisin said: “Our Nespresso AAA Farmer Future Program is an important piece in our larger goal of improving livelihoods for all coffee farmers in our supply chain.”
The Fartrade Foundation and Nespreso said it would look to extend the scheme to other regions in future.
The Fairtrade announcement came as Nespresso convened its first Sustainability Advisory Board, comprised of experts and Nespresso brand ambassador George Clooney, in Lausanne today. At the meeting, Nespresso announced schemes to expand its AAA sustainability programmes in Ethopia and Kenya, and to re-establish a coffee supply from South Sudan.
Research from IGD published earlier this month found that 35% of UK shoppers said they had specifically chosen to buy Fairtrade products in recent weeks.
“One in five shoppers expect to buy more Fairtrade in the year to come – and only one in 100 are expecting to buy less,” said IGD chief executive Joanne Denney-Finch. “Fairtrade is a movement whose time has truly come.”
No comments yet