Cost of coffee.indd - RISC

appendix 7: partners’ blend
Nestlé uk to launch fairtrade coffee
October 7, 2005
Nestlé UK is to launch a Fairtrade certified coffee in a new sustainability initiative for
smallholder coffee farmers. Nescafé Partners’ Blend is a high quality, soluble, freeze-dried
instant coffee and will be on sale in the UK from the middle of October.
Alastair Sykes, CEO of Nestlé UK and Ireland said: “Nestlé’s long term commitment is to
develop sustainable agricultural practices in order to help alleviate hardship and poverty among
small coffee farmers.
“Increasingly our consumers expect us to bring this commitment to social responsibility alive in
our brands and show them how farmers can be helped to have a better life. This means that we
need to ensure that farmers in the developing world not only receive a fair price for their coffee,
but that their sources of income are developed to support their families into the future in a
manner that respects their lands and communities. These are issues that concern the consumer
and which have led to increasing demand for Fairtrade products. We are therefore delighted to
offer consumers a product carrying the approved Fairtrade mark.”
Nescafé Partners’ Blend is a high quality coffee made from 100 per cent Arabica beans from
two of the world’s renowned coffee bean growing countries, El Salvador and Ethiopia. Nestlé
research indicates that the product will appeal to a new consumer group that, while not
currently regular purchases of Fairtrade coffee, are predisposed to fair trade and/or sustainable
products.
Harriet Lamb, executive director of the Fairtrade Foundation, said “This is a turning point for
Fairtrade in the UK – the first time that one of the four major coffee roasters has taken its first
step in response to rapidly growing consumer demand for products independently certified
by the Fairtrade Mark. Our label is increasingly trusted by the public as the only independent
guarantee that disadvantaged producers in developing countries have received a better deal.
We expect the addition of Nescafé Partners’ Blend to bring a new wave of coffee drinkers to
Fairtrade, bringing more opportunities to more farmers in more countries.”
Nestlé is the world’s largest direct buyer of coffee and has been directly collaborating with
coffee farmers for over 30 years – since the first Nestlé coffee agronomist was hired to work
in the field. In 2002 the company co-founded the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative and has
been working closely with farmers to encourage and implement sustainable approaches to
coffee growing. Over the years this work has evolved into a sustainable approach concentrating
on three important areas – economic, social and environmental. Nestlé is now applying its
learnings over the past 30 years in each of these three areas to help individual communities.
Its farmer suppliers for Partners’ Blend are all smallholders from El Salvador and Ethiopia who
have been adversely affected by the regular fluctuations in coffee prices.
In El Salvador Nestlé is working with over 200 smallholders in four Fairtrade certified cooperatives
to fortify their business and management skills and promote sustainable practices.
In Ethiopia the company has now established a trading relationship with the Oromia Cooperative
Union – a longstanding and highly respected Fairtrade producer organisation. It is also
working on sustainability with farmers in the Hama area of Yirgacheffe and is exploring with the
Fairtrade Foundation how these farmers might also achieve Fairtrade certification so that their
beans can also be included in Nescafé Partners’ Blend in the future.
The product is sourced according to internationally agreed criteria established by the Fairtrade
Labelling Organisations International and the product has been approved to carrying the
Fairtrade Mark which provides an independent assurance to consumers. This means the coffee
comes from producer organisations that have been certified to Fairtrade social, economic and
environmental standards and that the traders involved in the supply chain have been registered
with Fairtrade and agree to abide by its trading standards.
Fiona Kendrick, MD of Nestlé’s beverage division commented: “Nestlé recognises that Fairtrade
has a useful role to play in helping smallholder producers cope in today’s global economy. By
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