• About
  • Help Center
    • English
For Individuals
For Business
  • The Latest
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • What We Are Doing
    • Our Impacts
    • Our Approach
    • Issues
      • Forests & Biodiversity
      • Livelihoods
      • Climate
      • Human rights
    • Regions
      • Asia
      • Central America & Mexico
      • East Africa
      • South America
      • West & Central Africa
  • What You Can Do
    • Support Our Work
    • Everyday Actions
    • Find the Frog
    • School Curricula
    • Kids Games & Activities
    • Shop to Support
  • For Business
    • Certification
    • Marketing Sustainability
    • Tailored Supply Chain Services
    • For Partners
  • About
  • Help Center
  • The Latest
  • Events
  • English
    • Español
  • Certification
      • Rainforest Alliance seal
      • 2020 Certification Program

        Designed to deliver most value to the farmers and companies that use Rainforest Alliance Certification
        LEARN MORE

      • UTZ CERTIFICATION

      • WHY CERTIFICATION

        Considering getting certified? Learn how Rainforest Alliance certification can help people, nature, and your business.
        LEARN MORE

      • OUR COMMODITIES

  • Tailored Services
  • Marketing Sustainability
  • For Partners
  • Work with Us

Home » Certification » Evaluation of UTZ Certification on Coffee Businesses in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua

Impact Study

Evaluation of UTZ Certification on Coffee Businesses in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua

1 January 2018

This independent evaluation study assesses the strategies and needs of coffee certificate holders (CHs), businesses that implement the UTZ standard, in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

The study aimed to understand the businesses’ experiences with UTZ implementation, the benefits they derived from UTZ, the challenges they faced to deepen engagement and how UTZ fits into the coffee businesses’ larger strategy around certification, farmer engagement and marketing.

ICRAF selected nine different cases that included four cooperatives (in Honduras and Nicaragua; two emerging and two established), two private buyers (in Honduras and Nicaragua) and three plantations (in Guatemala; two large and one medium-sized farm). Farmworkers or farmer suppliers and other key actors who interact with the businesses (such as buyers, intermediaries, NGOs, governmental agencies) were also interviewed. Finally, three former UTZ CHs (business that had participated but had withdrawn from the UTZ program for at least one year prior to data collection) were asked about their interactions with UTZ and the factors that led to halting participation.

The following three questions guided data collection and analysis for all the CHs:

  1. UTZ implementation: How do the CHs value UTZ certification (including expectations associated with UTZ adoption); what are the associated benefits and costs (realized and/or perceived)?
  2. Bottlenecks for deeper UTZ engagement: What are the major bottlenecks faced by CHs to increase sales and obtain greater benefits from participation in the UTZ program; how have they sought to overcome these bottlenecks?
  3. UTZ in a multi certification context: Why and how have CHs engaged with different types of certification systems; how does UTZ fit into the multi certification strategy; how do these findings vary across different types of CHs?

Read the Rainforest Alliance's response to this report.

View this Impact Study:

Download
PDF - 8.9 MB - Version 1.0

Topics:

Central America & Mexico, Certification, Coffee, Guatemala, Honduras, Monitoring & Evaluation

For Business

Transform your business practices

For Supporters

Help us rebalance the planet

For Researchers

See how we measure our impacts

For Educators

Use our conservation curricula in your classroom

The Rainforest Alliance is a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit registered in the US under EIN: 13-3377893.

rainforest alliance spending

In 2021, 77% of our income supported sustainability programs. Learn More »

charity-watch
earth-share

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube

Subscribe

Sign up for business updates or general updates
  • FAQ
  • Press
  • Financials
  • Certification Documents
  • Careers
  • Contact Us

© Copyright 1987 - 2023, Rainforest Alliance | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy