MILAN – Nespresso CEO Jean-Marc Duvoisin (in the picture) told delegates at the International Coffee Organization’s (ICO) first Global Coffee Forum in Milan on 30th September that Creating Shared Value for coffee farmers, customers and businesses is a key part of the solution to some of the current global challenges facing the coffee industry.
Drawing on real-life examples of farmers Nespresso is working with, Duvoisin said that the company was finding ways to protect the long-term interests of both farmers and the long-term supply of high quality coffee for Nespresso through the company’s AAA Sustainable Quality™ Program.
“I strongly believe that embedding the principles of Creating Shared Value into our business model is continually proving itself to be an effective way of ensuring a stable future income for coffee farmers, and ensuring our supply of coffee.”
Mitigating the impact of price volatility
Mr Duvoisin shared concerns about price volatility, which remains one of the biggest challenges of the coffee industry. Not only for businesses, but most notably for farmers, who are directly impacted by volatile market prices, bringing uncertainty in their earnings and sometimes massive drops in income.
“The Creating Shared Value approach we are pursuing through our AAA Program directly contributes to soften the impacts of price volatility for a more stable future for farmers.” he said.
He explained that Nespresso has decoupled premiums from the commodity market in order that they remain stable over time and lessen the effect of volatility on farmers’ incomes.