Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade Coffee
Sustainable coffee is the sector with the largest growth in the coffee industry. Its annual growth rate of between 10% and 20% exceeds the increases recorded for general worldwide consumption which in the last 20 years has increased approximately 1.2% annually. It even exceeds the ‘specialty coffee’ category which has been increasing between 5% - 10% per year. These figures however, should be seen in the context that world production year ending 2003 was approximately 6.5Million MT of which totally sustainable coffees made up at 85,000MT or 1-1.5% of total production. Both Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade coffees are now available in Australia ……
Rainforest Alliance
This organization has been international known for certifying sustainable timbers and bananas, previously called ECO-OK. More recently they demonstrated that coffee could be produced in consultation with a number of social and environmental groups that was environmentally friendly. Their certification process it designed to promote and ensure improvements in agricultural practices to the benefit of workers on properties, farmers, consumers and wildlife. The certification standards cover all aspects of production including environmental protection, human wellbeing and economic vitality. The properties that comply with the standards, receive the certified i.e. Rainforest Alliance® certification of approval. This is a certification that may be used to market agricultural products, the program includes social and environmental standards and is characterised by being administered by a coalition of local groups that understand their culture, ecology, agricultural traditions and governments. Wildlife conservation is an integral part of the Rainforest Alliance sustainable system! Certified properties, in natural forest areas must maintain forest coverage by different species of native trees and vegetation which constitutes a habitat for birds, monkeys and numerous other species.
Fairtrade
Fairtrade advocates for better working conditions and improved terms of trade for farmers. As an international organization Fraitrade supports the developing of thriving communities to have more control over their futures and protect the environment they live and work.
Globally Fairtrade works with 445 coffee producer organisations, representing more than 844,000 farmers in 30 countries to make sure they are paid fairly for their produce and work. In 2015, Fairtrade coffee farmers received more than $106 million AUD in Fairtrade Premium to invest to benefit their farms, communities and families.
COMMON CODE for the COFFEE COMMUNITY UPDATE
Report of the three Rapporteurs of the 4C initiative
(Mrs. Sue
Longley, Dr. Diego Pizano, Mr. Roel Vaessen)
ICO Private Sector
Consultative Board – September 26, 2005
From September 20 to 22,
the Steering Committee of the Common Code for the Coffee Community (4C)
Initiative met for its sixth session in Salvador da Bahia, Brasil. On
September 19 the constituent group of the producer organizations as well as
the constituent group of the civil society met for a one day workshop to
prepare their position for the Steering Committee meeting. Both groups
appreciated the opportunity to meet internally and agreed to arrange
pre-meetings prior to future Steering Committee meetings. The Management
Unit was glad to welcome representatives of the global coffee trade and
industry, civil society organizations, smallholder representatives and
producer organizations (from Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, East Africa, El
Salvador, Guatemala, the Inter-African Coffee Organization, India,
Indonesia, Mexico and Vietnam). National / international organizations and
institutions were observing the meeting as extraordinary members. For the
first time, with the Brazilian Roasters Association ABIC a representative
of a producing country was participating in the trade & industry
constituent group. In a co-operative and positive atmosphere, the Steering
Committee decided on the following: a) “Rules of Participation
– The Business Code – the Steering Committee agreed on the
Rules of Participation. The document stresses the responsibilities and
commitment of buyers of Common Code coffee. For example: •
“Participants commit themselves to the principle of continuous
improvement of coffee quality as understood under the Code which shall
include the quality of the product and the quality of production and
processing methods on their way towards sustainability.” •
“Each participant shall purchase increasing volumes of 4C coffee over
time.” • “Participants acknowledge that prices of 4C
coffee should reflect the quality, including the physical product quality
and the quality of the production process as laid down in the Common Code
matrix. Prices include the cost of verification of 4C coffee
quality.” • “Roasters are to report volumes and values per
country of origin and per calender year to an external qualified
information management bureau that guarantees the confidentiality of all
commercially sensitive information.” • “Buyers will
contribute to capacity building in a way that is commensurate with their
volume or value of coffee purchased.” Participants agreed that the
wording of this version of the Rules of Participation now will be checked
by the European and American anti-trust authorities.
1
Report of the three Rapporteurs of the 4C initiative
(Mrs.
Sue Longley, Dr. Diego Pizano, Mr. Roel Vaessen)
ICO Private Sector
Consultative Board – September 26, 2005
b) Support Component of
the 4C – The Steering Committee agreed on a Support Component as a
fundamental element of the sustainability initiative. Every producer and
interested actor in the coffee sector will have access to good agricultural
and management practices as implementation tools. It is a main objective of
the 4C initiative to enable farmers to optimize their practices towards
higher efficiency and to improve social as well as environmental
conditions. With access to trainings, skill development activities,
financial tools, good production practices and capacity building, actors of
the 4C will support this process in a cooperation of all relevant
stakeholders. As stated in the Rules of Participation: “Buyers will
contribute to capacity building activities of stakeholders associated with
4C activities, including field and farm education and training programs.
Training programs will comprise capacity building to export directly,
quality improvement, organizational development, managerial tools, brand
development, access to market information, diversification as appropriate
etc. This will benefit in particular small holders and their
organizations.” The Steering Committee agreed to establish a Support
Platform as a learning network within the 4C concept to analyze results of
the application of the Code Matrix, to develop tools and instruments for a
sustainable production and processing of coffee and to expand the
co-operation with other initiatives / research institutes / sustainability
programs. c) Framework for operational System of the 4C – The
operational system of the 4C initiative will build on membership. As an
open and inclusive initiative, the membership is open for every actor in
the coffee sector, individually as supplier and through associations or
organizations. The Steering Committee stressed that coffee according to the
sustainability understanding of 4C may be produced referring to the Code
Matrix or any other code, initiative or approach that through a
benchmarking procedure shows its equivalency with 4C. Decentralized
implementation and the cooperation with equivalent approaches (such as e.g.
the EMBRAPA Code of Conduct) encourages local, regional or national
organizations to supply 4C coffee through their own systems and structures.
Details will be elaborated in an expert meeting in December. d)
Verification of 4C compliance – A framework for a verification
process according to the 4C Code Matrix has been agreed upon. The Steering
Committee confirmed that verification according to 4C needs to be
cost-efficient, credible and transparent. Therefore, it agreed on a process
verification with constant self-monitoring. Within equivalent codes and
approaches, local verification processes will be benchmarked against the
4C. Also buyers of 4C coffee agreed in the Rules of Participation to verify
their practices: “Participants shall adopt a self-assessment system
and internal monitoring practices that are consistent with the principles
of monitoring of compliance with the 4C standards and agree to employ a
qualified external third-party auditor that will conduct audits to ensure
compliance.”
2
Report of the three Rapporteurs of the 4C initiative
(Mrs.
Sue Longley, Dr. Diego Pizano, Mr. Roel Vaessen)
ICO Private Sector
Consultative Board – September 26, 2005
e) Cooperation with
other initiatives – According to the decision to co-operate with
equivalent codes of conduct and approaches, the Steering Committee
requested the Management Unit to establish close relationships with
national / regional and local approaches to develop and implement
sustainability concepts (such as EMBRAPA, EAFCA etc.). The close
co-operation with the Sustainable Coffee Partnership was encouraged
especially in accordance to the support component of the 4C. The Steering
Committee welcomed the activities of the Management Unit to establish and
deepen collaborations with research institutes such as CATIE, CIMS and
Cenicafé. f) Next steps – The Steering Committee confirmed the
mandate of the Management Unit to organize further discussion and
dissemination events in coffee producing countries. Dissemination events to
learn from the perspective of farmers, to discuss the concept of
sustainability with local stakeholders and to listen to the recommendations
of the national coffee sectors will take place in Kenya (October), Ecuador
(November), India (November), Indonesia (December), Ethiopia (February
2006) and Cameroon (February 2006). Further dissemination activities to
intensify the dialogue with producers will be arranged by request. The
progress of the initiative will also be presented to Sintercafé
(Costa Rica, Nov. 2005) and the World`s Wildest Coffee Conference
(Tanzania, Feb. 2006). During the next months, experts will meet within the
Support Platform (October 2005 in Bonn, Germany) and expert working groups
to further elaborate the details of the operational system and the
verification concept of 4C. The recommendations and results of these
meetings will be presented to the Steering Committee during its next
session in March 2006, which will take place in Bangalore, India. As the 4C
is an open, participatory and transparent initiative, members of the
Steering Committee would like to stress that the 4C is a learning process.
The group acknowledges that there exist doubts and concerns on the 4C
sustainability concept and its implementation in the coffee sector and
would like to discuss them thoroughly. Therefore, its processes and
documents are open for discussion and the Steering Committee would like to
emphasize that it welcomes every input, comment and recommendation on its
current concept. Contact: Common Code for the Coffee Community Management
Unit Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) mbH Mr.
Carsten Schmitz-Hoffmann Dag-Hammarskjoeld-Weg 1-5, D-65726 Eschborn
coffee@gtz.de European Coffee Federation 4C Group Mrs. Melanie Rutten ECF,
Tourniairestraat 3 PO Box 90445, NL-1006 BK Amsterdam
4C@coffee-associations.org 3
ABOUT DECAF
SUPER UNLEADED by Mark Henderson, Science correspondent.
Losing sleep over decaffeinated coffee
First there was the success
of Brasil 400, a wild fashion feira at Selfridges’ London store. And
now there’s something even wilder. Brazilian scientists have
discovered how to harvest naturally decaffeinated coffee. The plant itself
comes from Ethiopia, not South America, but it was agricultural researchers
in São Paulo who started studying this particular arabica bean back
in 1987 and it is they who have found a way to hybridise it — minus
50-70 per cent of its caffeine.
For years Europeans have deemed decaffeinated coffee inferior, a
tasteless treat suitable only for hypercautious, overly mellow,
health-freakish Americans. The media have reinforced the
stereotype
that only a prudish moron would order a caffeinated beverage without the
caffeine. The classic Steve Martin movie, L.A. Story, summed it up in a
scene showing a group of diners at a Hollywood restaurant, in the middle of
their order. Moron 1: “I’ll have a decaf coffee”; Moron
2: “I’ll have a decaf espresso”; Moron 3:
“I’ll have a double decaf cappuccino”; Moron 4:
“Give me decaffeinated coffee ice-cream”; Supermoron 5:
“I’ll have a half double-decaffeinated half-caf, with a twist
of lemon.” The joke is dated, though. The numbers now suggest it is
not just overindulged Angelenos who prefer unleaded. Retail sales of coffee
as a drink have topped $70 billion a year, and decaf now accounts for about
10 per cent of the world market. If decaf were mass-produced naturally
(rather than using solvents which sap regular beans of their juice),
industry experts predict that demand would spike like your heart rate after
a double espresso.
There could be side-effects to reducing our caffeine intake,
however. There are as many as a thrilling 150mg of caffeine in a cup of
filter coffee; as few as 2mg in a decaf. A wise man once said that
restlessness is the price of progress. Might a decrease in caffeine
consumption per capita hinder this nation’s development?
Without fully- leaded espresso — there’s 100mg of
caffeine in that tiny cup — tomorrow’s geniuses might simply
curl up and go to sleep. Without a clear difference in taste between
old-style and newfangled beans, there could be serious confusion.
Caffeinated coffee and its once-insipid twin are already hard enough to
tell apart. Waitresses happily serve obnoxious decaf orderers a cup of the
jitters instead. But if regular and decaf start to taste truly the same,
such mischief will be impossible to detect. Diners will need to be more
vigilant, and nicer, and the paranoid will be up all night anyway. In the
meantime, make mine a double macchiato and hold the caffeine.
THE PRICE OF THE KICK
Decaff world market share: 10 per cent
Arabica beans world market share: 70 per cent
Caffeine content of a
cup of filter coffee: 60mg - 150mg
Caffeine content of a cup of
decaff: 2mg - 4mg
Caffeine content of single espresso: 100mg
Side-effects of caffeine: Insomnia, restlessness, anxiety, heart
palpitations, raised blood pressure, miscarriage, birth defects Beneficial
effects of caffeine: Raised alertness, increased fertility in men, lower
risks of colon cancer, cirrhosis of the liver and Parkinson’s
disease
GENERAL COFFEE FACTS
Relevant information
Coffee Black as hell, strong as death, sweet
as love - Turkish proverb
Contents: 1. The origins of coffee 2.
Coffee types and coffee making 3. Coffee health issues 4. Coffee statistics
5. The Australian coffee industry 6. The Australian café industry 7.
The Australian instant coffee market 8. Emerging coffee trends 9. Sources
used in this report The origins of coffee • There is a legend of Kaldi
the goatherd from the Arabian Peninsula whose goats got high on a shrub
with dark green leaves and bright red cherries (Coffea Arabica). Local
monks then starting using the berries to stay awake during prayers before
spreading the word to other monasteries around the world and starting the
coffee revolution • The coffee shrub (Coffea arabica) probably
originated on the plateaus of central Ethiopia and was then introduced to
Yemen • Coffee has been cultivated in Yemen since the 6th century
Coffee types and coffee making • There are 6,000+ species of the
coffee plant split into 25 major types • Two species dominate
commercial production: Arabica (Coffea arabica) and Robusta (Coffea
canephora) • World coffee production is split 60% Arabica and 40%
Robusta • Arabica is a large delicate bush that grows at elevations of
600-2000 metres above sea level in Latin America, Central and East Africa,
Asia and Oceania • Because Arabica is difficult to grow, the beans are
more expensive than Robusta beans • Arabica can be drunk pure or in
blends with Robusta where it contributes acidity and body to the blend
• Robusta is a more hardy bush or tree that grows from sea level to
800 metres and is grown in West and Central Africa, South East Asia and
South America • Robusta is more strongly flavoured than Arabica and
gives blends body and “kick” • The person who actually
makes the coffee in a café or restaurant is called a
“barista”
Proper coffee making requires the barista
to make very precise measures of coffee amounts, water temperatures and
pressures, and brewing times (e.g. 22-28 seconds) • Good coffee
brewing requires a balance of the 4 “M’s” o Macinazione:
correct grinding of the coffee blend o Miscela: the coffee blend used o
Macchina: the espresso machine used o Mano: the skill of the barista.
• Australian Paul Bassett from Espresso Emporium in Sydney won the
2003 4th World Barista Championship held in Boston Coffee health issues
• Coffee contains caffeine which can lead to caffeine-induced anxiety
including agitation, jitteriness and irritability • Large doses (over
200 milligrams) of caffeine can disturb sleep, and can lead to headaches
• Caffeine is also a diuretic and can cause dehydration •
Extensive Australian and international research has shown no evidence of a
linkage between caffeine intake and cancer, cardiovascular disease or any
other function including pregnancy though moderation is still recommended
for pregnant women • Recent research suggests that people with a high
coffee consumption (7+ cups a day) have a far lower risk of developing Type
2 (adult onset) diabetes Coffee statistics • Global coffee consumption
in 2002 is expected to equal 105 million 132-pound bags • Coffee
production in 2002 is expected to have exceeded consumption by about 35%
leading to the lowest coffee prices in a century • Australian coffee
consumption has increased from 0.5 kilogram/person in 1940 to 2.4
kilogram/person in 1998 • Australia imported 49,000 tonnes of green
bean (the final dried stage before roasting) in 1996 • Australia has a
small coffee production industry centered on the east coast of Queensland
that produces about 200 tonnes of green bean per annum • Half of the
Australian output is exported with most of the remainder going to
specialist Australian gourmet coffee producers • In 2002, the five
most popular beverages consumed by adult Australians when eating out of
home were in order: coffee (excluding cappuccino), carbonated drinks,
bottled water (still), cappuccino, milk The Australian coffee industry
• The coffee roasting, distribution and wholesaling industry is
Australia is worth about AUD$10 billion a year and is growing fast • A
coffee roaster can make good profits as they typically buy raw green beans
for $5/kilo and sell the roasted beans for $20-$30/kilo, and up to $50/kilo
• Coffee chains such as Starbucks, Hudson and Gloria Jean’s have
not yet had a major impact upon the Australian market.
The high
profits make the industry very cutthroat and this is expected to lead to
consolidation over the next five years into fewer large players • The
main brands that supply cafes are committed to marketing with Cantarella
(Vittoria and Aurora brands) estimated to spend 10% of its $100M/year
revenue on brand building and management The Australian café
industry • Making and selling coffee immediately in cafes and
restaurants accounts for 20% (or about $2 billion/year) of the total
Australian coffee industry • A well run café will return about
20% per annum profit • The average $2.50 café latte contains
around 22 cents of coffee ingredient • A medium sized café can
make $25,000/year in clear profit on coffee alone • Coffee producers
typically attempt to gain market share via service strategies (e.g.
Vittoria) or by offering free coffee machines, or branded accessories such
as umbrella’s, sugar and cups • Some producers offer cafes a
“free on loan” machine with the cost of the machine and
servicing built into the coffee price • “Free on loan”
machines may cost up to $40,000 over 3 years • Cafes will often use
“free on loan” deals to reduce their capital costs The
Australian instant coffee market • The Australian instant coffee
market is worth about $425M a year • Nescafe is the instant coffee
market leader with around 70% market share • Nescafe spends
approximately $25M/year on advertising • In 2003, Nescafe re-launched
with a campaign through Publicis Mojo aimed at growing the market by
getting Australians to drink one additional cup of coffee a week •
Nescafe’s marketing will address various identified consumer
behaviour drivers including: o How coffee can be reviving o How having a
coffee can be an excuse for a rest o Helping people to understand and
appreciate coffee more o Trying to get people to try more expensive coffee
blends o Encouraging young adults to try coffee o Addressing health
concerns • Nescafe’s 2003 marketing will incorporate print,
in-store Point of Sale, Public Relations, promotions, web activity and
trade marketing • The instant coffee market was considered to be
mature and stable until the launch of Riva by Cerebos Australia in 2003
Emerging coffee trends • Starbucks is embarking upon a strategy of
locating outlets within popular locations, e.g. Commonwealth Bank branches,
Borders bookshops • The co-location strategy has been very successful
for Starbucks in America with outlets located in Wells Fargo banks, Barnes
and Noble bookshops and supermarket chains • The home market is
growing fast with Illy (a major brand) saying that its home sales are now
larger than its café sales
The major industry players,
e.g. Segafredo, are increasingly focusing upon the home market with
distribution through delicatessens and supermarkets • Many brands are
trying to lift their brand image, e.g. Douwe Egberts, which struggled with
its Piazza D’Oro brand, has created a new blend and brand in
conjunction with celebrity restaurateur Stefano Manfredi • Consumers
are increasingly focusing upon the ‘cult of the ingredient’
with familiar flavours being redefined in terms such as purity or
provenance • The cult of the ingredient has also lead to a growth in
the customization of products at the point of consumption, e.g. specialty
coffees • Flavoured coffees are popular in America but not in Europe
which has strong coffee drinking traditions • Coffee flavour trends
are believed to mirror ice cream flavour trends with vanilla the current
favourite
Sources used in this report 1. “Australian
Barista World Champion”,
http://www.gilkatho.com.au/news/default.asp?cmd=view&articleid=83 2.
“Beans means only part of today's COFFEE BLEND - 17 March,
2003”, http://www.cafebiz.net/ 3. “CaféDirect –
Types of coffee”,
http://www.cafedirect.co.uk/products/coffee_types.php 4. “Caffeine
Scientific Summary Notes”, Australasian Soft Drink Association Ltd,
2003 5. “Coffee cuts diabetes risk - November 8 2002”,
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/08/1036308468854.html 6.
“Coffee quotes”,
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/java/javaquot.html 7. “Expresso
definitions”, http://www.coffeeresearch.org/espresso/definitions.htm
8. “History”, http://www.coffeeresearch.org/coffee/history.htm
9. “Instant wake up call from Nestle – 18/10/2002”,
http://www.bandt.com.au/articles/0b/0c011c0b.asp 10. “Rural Laws:
October, 2002 - Number #20”,
http://www.migrationint.com.au/ruralnews/nauru/oct_2002-20rmn.html 11.
“The Australian Foodservice Market, 7th Edition, 2002-04, Extract to
indicate the general nature of the report”, BIS Shrapnel 2003 12.
“The Cult of the Ingredient: Consumer Sophistication Drives Drinks
Innovation – 11/12/2000”,
http://www.industrysearch.com.au/features/drinks.asp 13. “The New
Rural Industries - A handbook for Farmers and Investors” -
http://www.rirdc.gov.au/pub/handbook/coffee.html 14. “WBC on CBS
News!”, http://www.worldbaristachampionship.com/index2.lasso 15.
“Would you kill for a long black? – 16/11/2002”,
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/11/15/1037080913796.html 16. Nescafe
brews strategy to add $70m – 11/4/2003 -
http://www.bandt.com.au/articles/98/0c015c98.asp 17. Riva perks up coffee
market – 2/5/02003, http://www.bandt.com.au/articles/58/0c016458.asp
18. Starbucks mixes beans with bucks – 17/12/2001”,
http://www.bandt.com.au/articles/f1/0c009af1.asp