Kraft Foods has committed to a multiyear deal to purchase coffee from farms certified as sustainably managed. The food giant will buy some five million pounds of coffee in the first year from farms in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Central America.
The deal was brokered by the Rainforest Alliance, which certifies, monitors and verifies compliance of the coffee farms through the Sustainable Agriculture Group.
It commits Kraft Foods to increasing purchases of certified coffee, paying more to farmers that employ sustainable farm management practices, and working more closely with local community.
In addition, the company says it will support training of local certification specialists, auditors and to support the work of the Sustainable Agriculture Group.
The deal signals “an institutional change,” said Tensie Whelan, executive director of the Rainforest Alliance.
“Given Kraft’s global leadership in coffee sales, this partnership is the first indisputable evidence that the concept of sustainability, once limited to niche markets, is ready to enter the mainstream,” she said.
Certified farms can be “havens for wildlife and good places to work, as well as economically viable and outstanding community citizens,” said Juan Marco Alvarez, executive director of SalvaNATURA, a member of the Sustainable Agriculture Network.
The price of coffee has fallen some 50 percent over the past three years and now hovers near a 30 year low. This has caused an economic crisis for some 25 million coffee growing families in more than 50 developing countries.
“This news motivates us,” said Simon Antonio Chavez, the manager of one of the cooperatives certified by SalvaNATURA. “We are glad to hear that a big company like Kraft is now buying certified coffee.”
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From Environment News Service
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