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UK Restaurants, Hotels and Offices to Sell Kraft's Rainforest Alliance Certified CoffeeSustainable Coffee Sales Benefit Farms and Workers in Latin AmericaJune 30, 2004 When the coffee giant Kraft announced today that it is making Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee available to "away from home" buyers in the UK, farmers in some of the smallest and most remote villages of Latin America raised cups of sensational tasting sustainable coffee in celebration.
Farmers in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Peru and Brazil are benefiting from Kraft's commitment to buy unprecedented amounts of coffee grown with sustainable techniques. Their farm-management practices are verified by the Rainforest Alliance, an international, nonprofit conservation organization that is also a global leader in certifying well-managed forestry operations. The Rainforest Alliance program is built on the three pillars of sustainability -- economics, ecology and ethics -- according to the group's executive director Tensie Whelan. "Farmers know that they cannot ignore one pillar without undermining the others; we help them find that balance point where all three thrive, where production and quality are on the rise while workers and wildlife flourish." Coffee farming and processing is a leading employer in many tropical countries that are home to a great wealth of the Earth's biodiversity. Grown in harmony with nature, coffee is a potentially sustainable farm product. However, with a global oversupply of coffee, the challenge is to keep coffee workers in business and their forested farms thriving. The Rainforest Alliance works with farmers to get them on the path to sustainability, awarding a seal of approval to those farms that provide good conditions and wages to workers, conserve natural resources and protect the environment. In return, the farmers receive guidance in improved farm management, which usually leads to more production, better quality and access to premium markets. Farms that join the voluntary program and follow the guidelines are inspected by specialists -- agronomists, biologists, sociologists and other experts -- from local NGOs who are trained by the Rainforest Alliance. While meeting the standards requires considerable changes, improvements and investments, the payoff in better farm management and higher prices for the final product makes it worthwhile. "We had to make some investments in things like improved housing and sanitation and biological pest control, but many of the changes paid back in efficiency and worker morale," said Diego Llach, whose farm "Los Nogales" in El Salvador supplied some of the coffee to Kraft. Llach, who learned how to manage a coffee farm from his grandfather and father, added "The Rainforest Alliance taught us how to protect natural resources like water supplies -- it's a philosophy that goes hand in hand with our four generations of farming experience." Kraft purchased 5.3 million pounds of certified coffee, stimulating the global market for this holistic concept and beginning to integrate sustainability into the company's coffee supply chain. The first certified product available in the UK is aimed at the away from home market such as restaurants, hotels and offices. Thibaud de Saint-Quentin, vice president and area director, Kraft Foods UK & Ireland, said: "By promoting a market demand for sustainable coffee for consumers and by collaborating with key players in the coffee chain, we hope to be able to assist in developing a sustainable market for the longer term and grow a better coffee future for everyone." In the US and Canada, Kraft has just released a certified product called All LifeT, which is now available to college and university as well as business campuses. "Kraft is a world leader in coffee, and the company's commitment to sustainability is having positive reverberations throughout the coffee growing region," Whelan said. Growing and harvesting Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee for Kraft is employing nearly 10,000 families (about 50,000 people), on 9,500 hectares of farmland in about 3,574 farms ranging from large estates to tiny family plots. Protecting native forests and other vital habitats is a central element of the program, and these farms altogether host more than 8,000 hectares of natural areas. Kraft will buy increasing amounts of certified coffee in the coming harvests, so the numbers of families and farmlands benefiting from the program will continue to grow.
The certified coffee that is now available to enliven office hours across the UK and comes from farms as varied as the British businesses that will be enjoying it, including: Cooperative Las Lajas, El Salvador -- This cooperative is a famous example of how communities once torn by civil war can come together around coffee farming. More than 2,000 people tend the coffee bushes. The coop supports schools, health clinics, a credit union and its own coffee mill. Salvadoran farms in the certification program are guided and inspected by SalvaNATURA, the republic's leading conservation organization. SalvaNATURA biologists have found 129 tree species on the coop, and the forested coffee protects the watershed that supplies drinking water for neighboring communities. Cooperative La Majada, El Salvador -- In the Apaneca mountains in western El Salvador, 574 families are making the changes necessary to earn Rainforest Alliance certification. Some of their small farms are already certified, serving as models to the others, and advancing such techniques as using the pulp from coffee mills as fertilizers and planting diverse native tree species that provide wildlife habitat as well as firewood natural medicines. FUNDECASA, Honduras -- This association of 176 farmers in the San Juan, Intibuca, region of Honduras, where the large coffee exporting company, Neumann Kaffee Gruppe, with additional support from the German development agency (GTZ) and European coffee roasters, has been working for three years to improve farm management, quality control and organization. The farms in the certification program can be recognized by the new latrines, the traps hanging in the coffee bushes to catch insect pests (a labor-intensive alternative to pesticides) and the "No Hunting" signs. Finca Santa Isabel, Guatemala -- Social and environmental innovations are part of the working day at this large farm. Finca Santa Isabel boasts a coffee dryer that burns only the waste hulls from the coffee beans themselves, state-of-the-art pollution control devices, and a circular laundry pool where the indigenous Maya workers who come during the harvest period can gather to wash their clothes in a setting similar to the river washing pools that facilitate social bonding. The finca has a protected, 540-hectare forest reserve where an important river, the Rio Agua Capa, is born. Daterra Atividades Rurias, Minas Gerais, Brazil -- In addition to 3,337 hectares in coffee, this sprawling estate has an equal area in conservation, protecting a piece of the endangered ecosystem in central Brazil known as the cerrado. Unlike the Amazon rainforest, the cerrado is a mix of shrubs, savanna and scattered trees. Like the Amazon, the cerrado is a "biodiversity hotspot" with an astonishing variety of species, many found nowhere else. In addition to its conservation programs, Daterra provides outstanding services to those who cultivate and harvest the coffee. COCLA and PRONATUR, Peru -- Some 800 farm families belong to these two large cooperatives, located east of the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu, and are involved in the Rainforest Alliance certification program. The small and remote farms on steep Andean slopes produce excellent coffee. Most of the farms are a mixture of a small plot of coffee amid vegetables, livestock and staples for the family kitchen.
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