BOGOTA, Colombia – Under the frame of the 83rd National Coffee Growers Congress, the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC) announced that efforts to define a Café de Colombia sustainability standard are underway.
Café de Colombia 100% Sustainable will be a code of conduct that will guarantee stakeholders (customers, industry, buyers, governments, Academia) that the processes and products verified under this instrument meet sustainability standards.
Efforts to establish a Café de Colombia sustainability standard are part of the goal announced by Felipe Robayo, Commercial Manager of the FNC, of making Colombia’s coffee industry 100% sustainable by 2027.
Although Café de Colombia is already a synonym of quality, its 100% sustainable strategy seeks to take sustainability a step further in order to increase the income of coffee growers.
To date, there are a total of 212 thousand farms that meet sustainability standards. This represents 42% of the total area grown in coffee in Colombia: more than 165 thousand coffee growers in a total area of 396 thousand hectares.
So far, the strategy has focused on identifying the regional traits that make it possible to meet the requirements of the different sustainability standards, encouraging producers to adopt good practices via the Extension Service, and escorting compliance audits to certify and/or verify farms.
“We will keep implementing what have been implementing for the past 15 years in terms of sustainability (…) We have the institutional framework to accomplish this in the upcoming ten years,” noted Mr. Robayo.
Public goods and services that benefit producers including Purchase Guarantee, scientific and technological research, and technical assistance are not only competitive advantages that the sector already enjoys, but also differential traits that foster sustainability.
These mechanisms will all be taken into consideration by Café de Colombia’s sustainability standard.
The definition of a Café de Colombia sustainability standard must be credible, novel, reliable and voluntary. It will adopt the democratic and participative nature of Colombia’s coffee institutions, which is highly valued both in Colombia and abroad.
The implementation of Café de Colombia 100% Sustainable will include the integral assessment of socioeconomic, institutional and environmental spheres, verifying that the best practices are executed throughout the commercialization chain.
As Mr. Robayo noted, “It’s not just a market issue, it also relates to the responsibility and empowerment of Colombian coffee growers.” Valuation will take place in two stages: verification of the process in farms and certification of the product will all actors of the value chain.
