Cafeteros exigen corresponsabilidad a industria mundial en solución a crisis

• Recipients of the letter include companies such as Starbucks, Nestlé, John Johannson, Gustav Paulig, Folgers,  Keurig , and JDE.

• The letter recalls that since 1990, coffee prices have been impoverishing the world’s coffee growers, and in most countries they do not even cover production costs. While in 1982 a pound of coffee fluctuated between US$1.20 and US$1.40, this year it has reached US$0.94, causing producers to lose at least two-thirds of their purchasing power.
• The signatory associations represent more than 30 countries grouped together in the World Coffee Producers Forum, which, under the leadership of the National Federation of Coffee Growers, met in Medellín in July 2017 with nearly 1,500 attendees and will meet again in Brazil in July 2019.

Coffee growers’ associations representing more than 30 countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia recently sent a joint letter to major coffee buying companies, warning about the current price crisis and the urgent need to immediately seek joint solutions.

Recipients of the letter include companies such as Starbucks, Nestlé, John Johannson, Gustav Paulig, Folgers, Keurig, and JDE.

“As leaders of associations representing coffee growers in more than 30 countries, we write to you to express our deepest concern about the current situation in the coffee market, which is generating a profound economic, social, and potentially political crisis, as well as unrest among coffee producers around the world,” the letter reads.

The letter recalls that since 1990, coffee prices have been behaving in such a way that they are increasingly harmful to coffee growers, to the point that in many countries they cannot even cover their production costs, let alone earn enough profit to provide a decent living for themselves and their families.

Other effects of this situation include undocumented immigrants from Africa and Latin America illegally crossing borders to find a better future for themselves and their families, as well as the increase in illicit crops in some countries.

“Some may argue that ‘the market is the market and it does what it has to do.’ For some products, that may be the case. However, in the case of coffee, where the livelihoods of more than 25 million families are at stake—many of whom are facing a process of impoverishment that is leading them to a situation of misery—this is nothing short of inhumane. But there is also a risk of abandoning coffee farms and a reduction in supply, which is disadvantageous to the end consumer,” the letter states.

During the First World Coffee Producers Forum meeting in Colombia in July 2017, attended by nearly 1,500 coffee growers from 42 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, as well as industry representatives, it became clear that the coffee value chain is one and its results are very positive overall.

However, a closer look also makes it clear that some of the links are extremely profitable, while others, particularly coffee producers, are operating at a loss.

The conclusion is obvious: this imbalance needs to be corrected, and each and every link in the chain must be profitable if we want to have a healthy and sustainable coffee industry. “We are all jointly responsible for the sustainability of the coffee industry, not only at the environmental and social level, but also at the economic level, that is, the livelihood of coffee growers,” he points out.
Consumers are also a key part of the value chain. They are unaware of the current situation because they have not been informed, so it is time to engage them globally to explain why coffee is at risk, not only from threats like climate change but, more immediately, from the lack of economic sustainability of millions of coffee growers who are paid less than a third of the 1982 price. “Poverty is the great predator of the environment and the social fabric,” he notes.

In the letter, the producer associations acknowledge that the industry has made some targeted efforts to address issues such as environmental sustainability, climate change, and social investment, and they applaud them. “However, we cannot delay further actions to improve coffee growers’ incomes,” they suggest.

The producers express their confidence that the letter is the first step in serious discussions and joint actions with the industry to find ways to ensure the economic sustainability of coffee growers, increasing their income and preventing the spread of the social catastrophe brewing in many coffee-producing countries.

To this end, a delegation of coffee association leaders was scheduled to meet with the directors of these major purchasing companies to explore the best avenues for cooperation.

The main coffee producer associations that signed the letter include the Robusta Coffee Agency of Africa and Madagascar, the African Fine Coffee Association (AFCA), the Specialty Coffee Association of Brazil (BSCA), the https://www.ufrgs.br/feisc/ National Coffee Council (Brazil), the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia (FNC), the Interafrican Coffee Organization (IACO), the India Coffee Trust, and Promecafé (which groups Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica).