Big vision, big results.
When we launched our original ethical coffee coffee-buying guidelines in 2001, our vision was to ensure that the coffee we purchased from suppliers was responsibly grown and ethically traded. Our vision has not changed. In fact, our commitment has only deepened.
Since then, we've established a big goal: By 2015, all of the coffee we purchase will be responsibly grown and ethically traded. Given our ambitious goal, we're continually working on ways to increase the supply of responsibly grown and ethically traded coffee.
As of today, the best indicator we have to gauge our progress is to track, year-over-year, the amount of coffee we purchase under C.A.F.E. Practices. In fiscal 2008, we purchased 295 million pounds, or 77 percent of our total coffee purchases, from suppliers who have been verified and approved under the C.A.F.E. Practices guidelines.
To be approved under C.A.F.E. Practices, suppliers must be evaluated by an independent third party to demonstrate their progress and level of compliance with our 24 criteria and more than 200 supporting indicators.
Tracking our suppliers' progress.
For the first time, we're publishing the average compliance rates per criteria from the independent verifications of coffee farms and coffee mills during the 2008 verification period. Below we discuss some of the highlights and challenges we gleaned from the scores.
We also asked Conservation International, our partner that helped in designing C.A.F.E. Practices, to review our suppliers' progress from 2008 and provide some additional feedback and insights.
How our suppliers scored: a few highlights.
Over the past four years, we've seen average supplier scores improve considerably among the following criteria and set of indicators, especially in Latin America where the majority of C.A.F.E. Practices–approved suppliers currently are located.
- Hiring practices and employment policies: When C.A.F.E. Practices was first launched, some suppliers were not fully aware of local labor laws and their obligation to uphold them. Since then, both suppliers and workers have gained a better understanding of the local laws and regulations along with their respective obligations and rights. Additionally, they better understand the C.A.F.E. Practices guidelines requirements that in some circumstances address aspects that are beyond those stipulated by local laws or regulations.
- Ecological pest and disease control: Scores in this area have improved for two reasons: First, we've been emphasizing the value of employing environmentally- friendly pest and disease control techniques and teaching farmers how to implement them. Second, is that the costs of agrochemicals have increased, making them a less attractive option for farmers to use on their farms.
- Waste management practices: Scores for dry milling have greatly improved in this area. Many mills are using coffee by-products as a fuel source for energy. Much of the improvements can be attributed to the high cost of energy. Suppliers are motivated to cut costs, and if it means making certain investments and modifications to their infrastructure, they will. In the end, it's a responsible way to eliminate waste and reduce energy costs.
How our suppliers scored: some challenges.
Among the criteria and indicators for C.A.F.E. Practices, there are several areas where scores are lower than we'd like. These include:
- Protecting water resources: Water management is an important component of C.A.F.E. Practices and something we stress in the training we provide to farmers. But for many farmers, water resource management hasn't been a top priority, especially compared to other factors that may have a more direct impact on coffee quality, like soil productivity and the shade canopy levels in the coffee fields.
- Minimizing water consumption: C.A.F.E. Practices contains five indicators related to water consumption at the wet mills that process the coffee cherries. Scores in this area have been relatively low for a couple of reasons, both of which could involve a considerable investment from millers in order to address: a lack of proper equipment to monitor, manage and reduce the volume of water used in wet milling processes; and a lack of resources to recycle used water.
In order to maintain coffee quality, yet still maintain a low ratio of water to coffee cherry, new technologies are being implemented that reduce the amount of water used – by as much as 90 percent, when compared to older technologies. But these technologies cost money, an investment that farmers can't always make. - Farm management: Small-scale farmers tend to score low on farm management indicators in large part because they don't typically develop annual work or business plans, things that are emphasized in C.A.F.E. Practices. Through our Farmer Support Centers, we're helping farmers develop plans for the steps they can take to make improvements in the more challenging or costly areas of C.A.F.E. Practices.
What we're doing to address the challenges.
We've recognized for many years that both the size and scale of a farm impacts a farmer's ability to implement many of the social and environmental practices contained in C.A.F.E. Practices. That is why we designed a smallholder scorecard in 2005 and included it again with the Version 2.0 release. This is a modified version of the generic scorecard that includes only the 74 indicators that are most relevant for conditions on small farms of 30 acres (12 hectares) or less.
We also know that most small farms are selling their crops to a local supplier. In these cases, we encourage these suppliers to help the small farms with the implementation of C.A.F.E. Practices by creating networks of coffee farmers. For these networks, there is a separate set of indicators and a corresponding “Producer Support Organization” scorecard designed to evaluate the extent to which the local supplier is providing support to the small farms. The scorecard covers a variety of things, from providing a list of endangered species to helping farmers implement a system for maintaining receipts when there isn't an existing process in place.
With the focus on helping small-scale farmers, we've seen big improvements in their scores year-over-year. But, as always, more needs to be done. One hallmark of C.A.F.E. Practices is that it was designed to drive continuous improvement. We don't see this emphasis changing because there will always be advancements and more responsible ways to grow and produce quality coffee.
