LONDON, UK – Pact Coffee has released its 5th annual impact report, highlighting progress in its sustainability journey as the roaster accelerates its efforts to make speciality coffee more accessible to consumers whilst delivering a significantly larger social impact at origin.The report highlights Pact Coffee’s expansion into new areas, including corporate workplaces, hospitality chains and grocery, as well as its commitment to ensure there’s a profitable future in sustainable coffee.
Pact Coffee’s sustainability initiatives include backing reforestation projects and gender equity groups, funding vital nutritional support for farming communities, developing climate change-resistant varieties on a substantially increased scale and increasing its minimum payment for all farmers.
According to the report, Pact Coffee this year paid farmers an average $2.64 per lb of coffee. This is 46% more than the current Fairtrade base price, which increased in 2023, and 88% more than the base price before this point.
Will Corby, Head of Coffee and Social Impact at Pact Coffee, commented: “The ‘big coffee’ industry remains unfair, allowing market traders to thrive while farmers lose money on a year’s crop, encouraging profit over sustainability and leaving many that depend on coffee as their sole source of income with no choice but to deforest land.
“We’ve been challenging the status quo for 12 years now, building long-term relationships with sustainable farmers that flourish and paying them great prices for great coffee, so that they can, often, make life-changing improvements.”
The report also highlights Pact Coffee’s expansion into grocery. The brand has been available to buy from Waitrose – its first major retail listing – since October 2023, and in Whole Foods Markets from February 2024.
Pact Coffee’s CEO Paul Turton said: “Being available on supermarket shelves is a significant step that brings us entirely new audiences, and allows us to widen the scope of our impact at origin thanks to our new grocery partners and customers.
“With this new demand, it would be more profitable for us to abandon the farm-first coffees that fill our menu and buy the cheapest speciality coffees, but we won’t compromise on the values we’ve upheld since we were founded in 2012.”
Paul added that every single coffee in Pact Coffee’s supermarket blends is made by a talented farmer that the company is on first-name terms with, and it has paid these farmers as much as $2.20 more than the Fairtrade base price per lb of coffee.
“This is all possible thanks to our customers,” continued Paul. “Now, whether someone buys Pact Coffee from a supermarket, from our website or for their business, their coffee choices mean we can impact even more farmers, cooperatives and washing stations across the world.”
Pact Coffee’s 2023-24 impact report can be found here.
