Coffee producers face ethics onslaught

Coffee producers face new threats in the global export market following a shift in which buying firms are taking up more consignments sourced from ethically certified farms.

Buoyed by the concept of social responsibility many companies are reviewing their production and supply chains to ensure they resonate with environmentally, socially and economically sustainable standards.

“During the first half of this year, the consumption of sustainably sourced coffee increased 35 per cent compared to the same period last year,” a leading certifier, UTZ Certified said in a statement on Tuesday.

Sales of UTZ Certified coffee increased to 59.3 tonnes by the end of June 2010, 16 metric tonnes more than what was sold during the same period of 2009.

Certified coffee production is yet to be taken up widely in Kenya, indicating the danger producers may soon face competing in export markets that are increasingly leaning towards the ethical concept.

Socfinaf, that has since been bought out by Waguthu Holdings, was among the best known Kenyan estates to take up certified production through the UTZ logo.

Others include FairView Estate, Ratuma Farmers’ Co-operative Society and the Nyeri Hill Farm that is run by the Catholic Archdiocese of Nyeri.

“Most of us are yet to get to the certification level because the industry is just trying to pick up from the ruins after years of mismanagement. Besides, the cost of the process remains way above the reach for most of us but we hope to embrace the concept soon,” Paul Njenga, a small-holder coffee producer in Kiambu told Business Daily.

Such certifications give growers the opportunity to make production sustainable.

Other players in the production and supply chain such as roasters also find the benefit of tracing the quality of supplies from the cup back to the farms.

One of the leading global producers of coffee, Brazil has already gone big in terms of certified production.

Statistics showed that about 34 per cent of UTZ Certified coffee sales originated from Brazil, translating to about 20 tonnes.

“This makes Brazil the biggest supplier of certified coffee within the UTZ sustainability programme. Vietnam holds second place with 13.1 tonnes, Honduras, Colombia and Guatemala are third, fourth and fifth respectively,” UTZ said.

Apart from UTZ there are other international certification programmes active in Kenya including the Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade even though they have, on several occasions, been criticised for their expensive audit that locks out small-holder farmers.

Rainforest Alliance certifies coffee, chocolate and bananas in products worth over $1 billion annually, for leading global brands such as Starbucks and McDonald’s.