The International Coffee Council, at its 128th Special Session held on 28 October 2020, has confirmed and endorsed with leading coffee CEOs and global leaders, a vision and road map setting out new commitments towards achieving a prosperous, sustainable and inclusive coffee sector. The shared vision and Road Map contained in a joint Communiqué were developed and recommended by the Coffee Public-Private Task Force which is composed of “Sherpas” from ICO coffee exporting and importing Members and leading members of the private sector with the support of civil society and development partners.
“We strongly believe that GCP with its diverse membership — including coffee producers, trade, roasters & retailers, NGOs, coffee associations and banks, and development agencies — as well as GCP’s network of public-private Country Platforms in producing countries is well positioned to further contribute to the work of this important Task Force. Building on GCP’s ongoing work in coffee producing countries and leveraging GCP’s Call to Action follow-up, GCP will continue to help developing this comprehensive Road Map as one of the “Sherpas”. Only by working together can we effectively advance the economic viability of sustainable coffee production and close the Living Income gap in producing countries to achieve farmer prosperity,” said Annette Pensel, GCP Executive Director.
Pensel added that GCP was already supporting the Task Force to advance market transparency and encouraging increasing sustainable sourcing through the existing GCP mechanism of collective reporting by capturing Roaster’s & Retailer’s sustainable coffee purchase volumes per origin on an annual base.
Pensel said GCP was “encouraged by the progress made despite challenges from COVID-19 and looks forward to contributing to the next, more concrete steps of the Coffee Public-Private Task Force.”