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Starbucks and Conservation International We formed a partnership with Conservation International (CI) in 1998 to encourage environmentally sound coffee-growing practices and to improve farmer livelihoods. The success of our first joint project in Chiapas, Mexico is serving as a model for new and future projects. |
The Conservation Coffee™ program Through its Conservation Coffee™ program, CI provides farmers with technical assistance in the growing, processing and marketing of high quality coffee. Starbucks provides CI with financial support for our flagship project in Chiapas, projects in Colombia and Peru, and other Conservation Coffee™ sites around the world. |
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The site where Shade Grown Mexico coffee is produced
The El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve in Chiapas, Mexico, where Shade Grown Mexico coffee comes from, is a region CI considers to be one of the
world’s most environmentally sensitive. CI and Starbucks support farmers who grow coffee under the protection of
shade, creating and maintaining a forested buffer zone around the Reserve. Results so far In 2001, farmers producing Shade Grown Mexico received a 60 percent price premium over local prices for their coffee, and exported 50% more than the previous year. Since 1998, the number of cooperatives involved in the project doubled. Today there are nearly 700 farmers and more than 2000 hectares involved in the program. |
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Shade Grown Mexico coffee
In 1999, Starbucks made an initial purchase of 76,000 pounds of Shade Grown Mexico coffee and began offering it in our U.S. company-owned retail locations. Last year, we purchased more than 1.6 million pounds of Shade Grown Mexico. The future of the partnership In fiscal 2003, Starbucks invested $200,000 in CI’s Conservation Coffee™ program. Starbucks has committed an additional $1.5 million over the next 3 years to support the expansion of the Conservation Coffee™ program in Central America, Peru and Colombia. |
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