The company’s target is up from its current achievement of 75% of coffee for Nescafé products being responsibly sourced – meaning that the coffee can be traced back to an identified farmer group and verified or certified by independent organisations.
Nescafé has also committed to reduce and remove carbon emissions where it sources coffee and throughout its operations. The company says it will also use environmentally-friendly packaging as it looks to meet Nestlé’s 2025 packaging commitment and most recently its 2050 net-zero ambition.
The pledge builds on Nescafé’s progress over the past decade since the launch of its Nescafé Plan, which aims to help improve farmers’ incomes, reduce the environmental impact of coffee farms and factories and increase the well-being in rural communities in countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Kenya and the Philippines.
Since its implementation in 2010, Nestlé has invested a total of CHF 350 million ($395 million) in the plan, distributed 235 million high-yielding and disease-resistant coffee plantlets and contributed to the renovation of nearly 120,000 hectares of coffee farms worldwide.
As part of its achievements, the company claims to have delivered more than 900,000 farmer training sessions on good agricultural practices and empowered more than 10,000 women and young farmers through leadership programmes.
Philipp Navratil, senior vice president, head of beverages strategic business unit, said: “Together with our partners and 230 Nescafé agronomists, we improved efficiency and agricultural practices on farms, enabling farmers to command a premium price for coffee grown sustainably.
“We diversified sources of farmer income to reduce their dependence on monocultures and to make them more resilient. We will not stop here. Our programmes will evolve toward better social conditions in and around coffee farms. We will double down our efforts on labour rights, child protection, youth and women empowerment.”
