GLOBAL COFFEEPLATFORM

BONN, GERMANY (27 June 2023). The Global Coffee Platform (GCP) announced today that eight of its leading members have championed the launch of a new era of collective action in coffee sustainability. The combined contribution of more than $1.5 million marks the first milestone of the organization’s development into “GCP 2.0”, an effort to significantly advance coffee smallholders’ sustainability and prosperity.

“This targeted co-funding by our membership kick-starts our work, catalyzing transformational change around living income, climate adaptation and sustainability for over one million coffee farmers around the world,” announced GCP Executive Director Annette Pensel. “Today, we celebrate the commitment of JDE Peet’s, Melitta Group, Mother Parkers’ Coffee & Tea, Nescafé, Nespresso, ofi (olam food ingredients), Rabobank and Westrock Coffee Company. These companies are taking collective action to the next level to propel coffee sustainability.”

GCP 2.0’s farmer-centric approach entails focused local collective actions in coffee producing countries together with local stakeholders, complemented with a global drive to increase sustainable sourcing.

Sharing responsibility

Despite many years of efforts and certain sustainability advancements, the sector is still facing profound challenges to sustainability. More than half of coffee farmers around the globe are challenged by poverty, and coffee supply is threatened by climate change and increasing regulatory requirements.

“To unlock coffee’s potential as both an engine of socio-economic growth and nature-based solution to climate change, we urgently need transformational change with strategic action and bold investments within supply chains and, importantly, beyond it. Durable change comes only with focused solutions that are owned by coffee growers themselves, supported by public, private and NGO partners.”

Collective action locally and globally

“GCP has demonstrated that change beyond supply chains is possible when GCP Member companies work with our NGO and government partners through collective action,” says GCP Board Chair, Carlos Brando. “This pre-competitive collaboration is crucial to generating adequate level of investment and change. No one company can be effective by itself. Collective action is essential to not just ensuring compliance but also accelerating measurable sustainability at scale.”

“We are grateful that these GCP Members have stepped forward with this initial round of co-funding. This will lay the groundwork to bring ambitious solutions to over one million coffee smallholders.”

The combined $1.5 million investment enables GCP to grow, attracting new talent and further revenue, including public co-funding that is key to accelerate the first six entrepreneurial country programs to investment-ready levels and support the development of aligned measurement in the form of GCP Country Reports.

“While achieving transformational change on farmers prosperity for one million coffee farmers seems like an ambitious goal, today marks an exciting first milestone for GCP and an indication that we can transform the industry together,” said Pensel.

“As a pure play coffee business some of our most material topics include farmer livelihoods, responsible sourcing and climate action all of which are embedded in our sustainability programme Common Grounds. We have actively supported over 500,000 smallholders through our inclusive ‘assess, address and progress approach’. However, many sustainability challenges require systemic change and collaborative action if we want to see thriving, prosperous coffee farmers today and tomorrow.”

Nadia Hoarau-Mwaura 
– Sustainability Director,
JDE Peet’s

“Precompetitive collaboration of all public and private actors is precondition for a successful sustainability transformation of the global coffee sector. The GCP strategy 2.0 is an important basis for farmer- and impact-oriented joint work to develop a regenerative coffee sector. We as Melitta Group are looking forward to next steps.”

Katharina Roehrig, Managing Director Corporate Communication & Sustainability, Melitta Group Management GmbH & Co. KG

“Nestlé firmly believes and support collective action as key enabler to amplify and extend the shared value creation of its Nescafé Plan and Nespresso AAA coffee sustainability programs. We welcome GCP new era of collective action and look forward to transforming together Coffee into a force for good.”

Marcelo Burity
– Head of Green Coffee Development, Nestlé 

“Mother Parkers is excited to support GCP 2.0 because the work is designed to significantly advance coffee sustainability industry wide. We need to work together in moving towards a thriving, sustainable coffee sector for the generations of coffee farmers to come.”

Fred Schaeffer – President & CEO. Mother Parkers Tea & Coffee

“At ofi, we believe that shared responsibility is imperative for assigning and maximizing resources to help solve the coffee sector’s sustainability challenges. Through collaborative efforts, we can make an impact that extends beyond our individual supply chains to safeguard the future of coffee for farmers, the environment, and the coffee industry.”

Deepak Kaul, Senior Vice President ofi Coffee

“Rabo is proud to contribute to the new GCP 2.0 Strategy as a catalyst of transformational change. Multi-stakeholder pre-competitive collaboration with result driven GCP’s National Country Platforms are the key drivers to make the coffee world a better place. Climate change increased regulatory pressure and ongoing farmer poverty is creating a shared sense of urgency throughout the coffee valuechain. The new focus is re-energizing!”
  
Karel W Valken, Global Head Strategic Accounts & Sustainability Trade & Commodity Finance, Rabo Bank
 

“Without clear guidelines, any industry would struggle to distil its core sustainability challenges into collective and scalable solutions. The Coffee Sustainable Reference Code helps remove this barrier for the coffee industry, which is why Westrock Coffee has chosen to incorporate elements of the Code into our own responsible sourcing program.

Matt Smith, EVP Supply Chain & Sustainability, Westrock Coffee Company

GCP 2030 Goal

GCP Members share the vision of a thriving and sustainable coffee sector for generations to come. That future depends on achieving sustained prosperity for farmers, improved well-being for all the members of the coffee chain, and resilient coffee production systems compatible with the conservation of nature. GCP’s 2030 Goal of transformational change aims at significantly advancing smallholders’ prosperity and sustainability: together with its members and the Network of Country Platforms in coffee-producing countries, GCP is set to close at least 25% of the living income gap for more than one million smallholder farmers in more than 10 countries. Known as “GCP 2.0”, the Global Coffee Platform’s farmer-centric effort entails focused local collective actions in coffee producing countries in partnership with local stakeholders, complemented with a global drive to increase sustainable sourcing.