GCP hosted an interactive panel at the 21st edition of Sintercafé, which took place on 13-15 November in Costa Rica. The vibrant and successful event, which saw participation of more than 500 participants from all segments of the coffee value chain, was an opportunity for the GCP to engage with members and partners and to meet with new stakeholders around the topic of coffee sustainability through collective action.
GCP’s interactive panel “Advancing coffee sustainability with Global Coffee Platform” focused on work underway to advance coffee sustainability at scale. The panel brought together different perspectives from member representatives: Ms. Gina Canales, Manager Sustainability LatAm at JDE Peet’s, contributed from a coffee roaster perspective; Mr. Emilio Medina, CEO of Becamo Honduras (part of Neumann Kaffee Gruppe) shared views from the trader perspective; and Mr. Pedro Ronca, being a coffee grower himself and leading the GCP work in Brazil, shared both a coffee producer perspective as well as insightful learnings from GCP Brazil.
The audience learned about the mission, goal and strategy of GCP in a nutshell, presented by Annette Pensel, Executive Director of GCP, who also moderated the discussion.
GCP Members shared concrete examples of how they are using GCP Tools – the Coffee SR Code, the GCP Equivalence Mechanism and the Collective Reporting – to strengthen their sustainable supply chains, grow the uptake of sustainable coffee in the marketplace and advance towards sustainable sourcing.
The panel also discussed concrete examples of how GCP Members are actively addressing sustainability business challenges through effective, innovative collaboration amongst various stakeholders in coffee producing countries – GCP Collective Action. The panel exchanged on challenges and opportunities for the coffee sector and why it is smart to address some of these challenges in collaboration.
Other topics covered included regulatory requirements such as EUDR, learnings and critical success factors for real collaboration and measurable progress from Brazil, priorities for Honduras’ coffee sustainability efforts as well as and the next steps towards an aligned understanding of Regenerative Agricultural Practices for coffee supported by GCP.
Thanks to an active audience and excellent organization by the Sintercafé team, questions from the audience were addressed live on stage. Feedback included the appreciation of GCP’s strategic focus on farmer prosperity as key to a thriving, sustainable coffee sector for next generations.