Nestlé in society Creating Shared Value and meeting our commitments 2015

Nestlé in society:
Creating Shared Value
Nutrition, health
and wellness
Rural development
Water
Environmental
sustainability
Human rights
and compliance
Our
people
G4-EC7, Procurement practices G4-DMA, Supplier environmental assessment G4-DMA, G4-EN33, Supplier assessment for labor practices G4-DMA, G4-LA15,
G4-HR10, Local communities G4-DMA, G4-SO9, G4-SO10
Farmer Future Program helping
farmers prepare for retirement
Through its Farmer Future Program, Nespresso is building on
the existing capacities of its AAA Sustainable Quality
Program to enhance the socio-economic development of
coffee farming communities in Colombia. As part of this, an
academic study was initiated with CRECE (Centro de Estudios
Regionales Cafeteros y Empresariales), taking into
consideration key elements, such as coffee price volatility,
poverty, health, gender balance and education. The aim was to
understand the current situation of Colombian farmers and
develop initiatives that will guard farmers against the risks of
instability in the coffee-growing sector through innovative
solutions to farmer welfare. Among the study’s findings was
that only 7.5% of the farmers in the coffee-growing areas of
Caldas and Antioquia have access to a pension scheme.
Consequently, Nespresso, Fairtrade International, the
Colombian Ministry of Labour, Expocafé, Cafexport, the Caldas
Coffee Growers Committee and the Aguadas Coffee Growers
Co-operative, supported by the Colombian Coffee Growers
Federation (FNC), launched the first Farmer Future Program in
March 2014, in the Caldas-Aguadas region. This was a pilot
retirement savings plan, leveraging the Ministry’s system of
supporting people in old age, the Beneficios Económicos
Periódicos (BEPS).
To maximise the savings being invested in the plan, the
co-operative invests a proportion of the Fairtrade social
premium paid by Nespresso, the farmer invests a variable
amount and the government adds a 20% subsidy. Fairtrade
International worked closely with the local farmers’
co-operative to determine the best option in which farmers
could invest their earnings, with the farmers choosing BEPS.
So far, around 1000 farmers have enrolled in the retirement
savings plan. The first payments were made in May 2015, with
Nespresso distributing around USD 440 000 (CHF 435 600) to
farmers in Caldas.
Farmer training certification standards
Providing training and technical assistance to farmers on
coffee quality, farm productivity and sustainable agriculture is
core to the AAA Program. Nespresso’s network of more than
300 agronomists, supported by local partners, trains and
assists farmers through a unique Nespresso methodology, the
Tool for the Assessment of Sustainable Quality (TASQ).
TASQ helps farmers to meet the AAA standards for social
and environmental criteria, such as water management,
biodiversity and fair treatment of workers.
Expanding the AAA Sustainable Quality Program in
Ethiopia and Kenya
Nespresso is increasing its reach and impact in Kenya and
Ethiopia to meet future demand, reduce poverty, enhance
farmer welfare and progress towards sourcing all its coffee
from the AAA Program. However, the supply chains in those
countries present challenges, including farmer poverty, a lack
of investment and low productivity. In addition, local trading
channels, through commodity exchanges or auction houses,
inhibit direct relationships with farmers – a key component of
the AAA Program.
Through access to the AAA Program, as well as training
from our non-profit partner TechnoServe to improve yields and
crop quality, the incomes of thousands of smallholder coffee
farmers should increase:
• In 2015, more than 14 000 farmers in Ethiopia and almost
6800 farmers in Kenya joined the AAA Program. They are
given advice on good agricultural practices from 56 local
farmer trainers and have access to over 600 demonstration
plots where they can practice applying their training;
• A survey carried out by TechnoServe among 400 Ethiopian
farmers who joined the AAA Program in 2013 showed a
significant increase of best-practice adoption; and
• More than 100 wet mills were supported by the AAA
Program during the 2015 harvest in Ethiopia and Kenya, to
improve sustainability.
As the AAA Sustainable Quality Program expanded, the
number of farmers included in the initiative has also
grown significantly.
Number of farmers in the AAA Sustainable Quality Program
Year
Total AAA
farmers
New farmers
2015 75 000 11 000
2014 63 000 1 000
2013 62 000 9 146
2012 52 854 8 249
2011 44 605 3 917
2010 40 688 14 221
2009 26 467 3 371
2008 23 096 16 871
2007 6 225 3 800
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