Australian-owned Gloria Jean's Coffees International, one of the world's fastest growing specialty coffee retailers, is increasing the amount of coffee it purchases from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms in Latin America to nearly 3.9 million pounds -- a jump of more than 700 percent from last year.

The company, which has over 765 coffee houses in 25 countries, also plans to annually source up to 80 percent -- more than 5.5 million pounds -- of its coffee from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms within the next three years.

Gloria Jean's International has been buying and roasting Rainforest Alliance Certified beans since April 2005. By 2006, 15 to 20 percent of the company's total coffee came from certified farms. The coffee is used in 18 different Gloria Jean's Coffee blends. Starting in mid-2008, its signature espresso blend will also use certified-farm beans.

Around the world, Rainforest Alliance Certified products has recently been mentioned in a wide variety of publications, including:

• "Sustainability 'Key' Among Progressive Companies," The Jakarta Post (Indonesia)
• "McCoffees help fuel ethical trade boom," The Guardian (UK)
• "Giving New Meaning to 'Green Tea'," E/The Environmental Magazine (US)
• "New Menus, New Mission for Breakfast," The New York Times (US)
• "Rainforest Alliance: Des Ventes Record de Produits Durables," Novethic (France)
• "Nachhaltiger Kaffee immer beliebter," Sonnenseite (Germany)
• "Empresas ampliam compra de café certificado," Café Point (Brazil)
• "Café de calidad con Rainforest," La Prensa Grafica (El Salvador)
• "Ecuador comparte avances en cacao," La Prensa (Nicaragua)

We've made some subtle yet effective changes to our Rainforest Alliance Certified seal -- making the frog more prominent and removing some elements to give the seal a more streamlined look.

We will gradually be phasing in the revised seal on our publications and urge you to do the same. To obtain the new seal artwork in high resolution, log into the Rainforest Alliance Certified Marketplace and under Use of Seal click on Request Artwork.

Frog Spotting: The Latest Certified Offerings

The little green frog continues to hop around the globe!

In the United States, Holiday Inn now offers their certified coffee blend at their coffee kiosks, prominently boasting our seal, and you can find a variety of Rainforest Alliance Certified coffees across the country from First Colony Coffee & Tea, Farmer Brothers Coffee, Portland Brew, Allann Bros Coffee and Lexington Coffee. In Canada, Timothy's expanded their range of Rainforest Alliance Certified coffees to include decaf espresso -- for all the taste of sustainability, without the caffeine "kick."

In Europe, the frog has begun appearing on coffee in more McDonald's and McCafés, including in Germany as well as Italy and France. He can also be seen throughout Spain thanks to Kraft's new Saimaza brand, in Portugal from Delta Cafés, at Sweden's Panini locations serving Lavazza, in the UK at Tesco Cafes and RoadChef restaurants and on Whoosh Airlines, in Switzerland care of Beautiful People S.A.... and on coffee served at Belgium's Antwerp Zoo! Recently, the frog also got sweet on Good Natured orange juice in the UK and chocolates from Belcolade and Tchibo.

In Japan, UCC launched a 100 percent Rainforest Alliance Certified Colombian coffee to mark the 80th anniversary of the Colombian Coffee Federation. Also, Art Coffee began offering Colombian coffee with the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal, Sapporo Ueshima expanded their line of canned coffee beverages using certified coffee, Toyko Allied Coffee Roasters launched a new certified coffee blend, and bananas and pineapple from Chiquita started carrying the frog.

Worldwide Events

To continue to grow awareness of and increase the demand for Rainforest Alliance Certified products, we provided speakers and support for several key industry events around the world in recent months, including the annual conventions of the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE) and of Japan (SCAJ), as well as the biannual World Cocoa Foundation conference in Amsterdam, the National Coffee Association Fall Conference in the US, RAMACAFE in Nicaragua and the Round Table on a Sustainable World Cocoa Economy in Ghana.

New Crops, New Countries

Did you know that there are now Rainforest Alliance Certified rose farms in Ecuador and tropical flower growers in Guatemala? These are among a number of new crops -- some in new countries -- to recently achieve certification. Others include pineapple farms in the Philippines and Panama, rubber and cupuaçu (a crop similar to cocoa) farms in Brazil and coffee farms in Indonesia and Tanzania. To locate suppliers of these products, log into the Rainforest Alliance Certified Marketplace and click on Directory & Offers or contact rac@ra.org for more information.

The Rainforest Alliance is proud to be one of 12 new members elected to the International Standards Committee (ISC) of the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN). The ISC decides on the contents of new and revised SAN certification standards, and its members -- from a wide range of countries -- include landowners, farmers, NGOs, community members and other stakeholders.

This holiday season, you can strengthen relationships with your valuable clients and contacts while helping the environment -- by ordering greeting cards made with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified paper from National Envelope. Just go to the Hammond Web site and select the FSC/Rainforest Alliance link from the holiday greeting card menu. (The cards are available only in North America.)

Send free Rainforest Alliance eCards!

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