MILAN – International guests and leading names from the industry at the Stella Polare conference centre to talk about coffee and pleasure, health, sustainability Milan, September 21 , 2015 – Close to Expo Milano 2015 and the Coffee Cluster: two days of debates and exchanges of opinions on the world of coffee and its virtues.
On 30 September and 1 October 2015 the Auditorium of the Rho-Fiera Milano complex’s Stella Polare Conference Centre hosts the first Global Coffee Forum. This international event involving the whole planet is centred on an intense programme of debates on coffee’s present and future.
The Forum is promoted by the International Coffee Organization (ICO), the Ministry for Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, the Comitato Italiano del Caffè, EXPO Milano 2015 and Fiera Milano Congressi, thanks to the support of illy and Lavazza.
HOST, the 39th International Hospitality Exhibition and Oxfam are the Global Coffee Forum’s Special Partner.
The space which Massimiliano Fuksas designed inside Europe’s biggest fair and exhibition complex opens its doors to all coffee lovers for the Global Coffee Forum.
“The purpose of the Global Coffee Forum is to amplify knowledge of the coffee world”, says Robério Oliveira Silva, Executive Director of the ICO. “It’s an opportunity for inviting coffee enthusiasts to learn more about the long journey their favourite beverage takes from bean to cup”.
Two billion cups of coffee drunk every day, 148 million 60-kg sacks produced per year. Coffee is the fruit of the work of some 25 million families in 56 countries in economically disadvantaged zones.
These numbers and other issues will be discussed by the major international guests, leading names in the worlds of culture, research and business, including Maurizio Martina, Italian Minister for Agriculture; Andrea Illy – chair and CEO illycaffè and chairman of the Promotion & Market Development Committee of ICO; Giuseppe Lavazza – deputy chair of Luigi Lavazza S.p.A and co-chairman of the “Coffee and Climate” project; Jean-Marc Duvoisin – CEO Nestlè Nespresso; Patrick Hoffer – chairman of the Consorzio Promozione del Caffè, Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute, Columbia University; Ric Rhinehart – SCAA and Francesco Morace, chairman, Future Concept Lab.
The Global Coffee Forum offers an educational “coffee experience”. Not only flavour and pleasure, but also the connections between coffee and health and sustainability-driven projects.
On October 1st the Global Coffee Forum’s proceedings coincide with the first International Coffee Day promoted by ICO. For that occasion, in the afternoon, the forum will take place at the Expo Centre of Expo Milano 2015 where the International Coffee Day will also be celebrated.
Within the context of these event, coffee joins hands with charity in an important fund-raising campaign promoted by Oxfam: “Oxfam Coffee4Change”. Inspired by the Neapolitan “caffè sospeso” tradition – the custom of anonymously buying a coffee that will be drunk by someone who can’t afford to pay for it – the campaign asks people to donate the equivalent price of a cup of coffee to support plantation workers.
“Producing coffee is an extraordinary opportunity for improving the living conditions of hundreds of thousands of land workers”, states Roberto Barbieri, director of Oxfam Italia.
“Together with the rural communities, Oxfam is conducting poverty-fighting programmes in more than 90 countries. So we’re well aware that sustainability must be both social and environmental. We hope that the Global Coffee Forum will be a chance to think about concrete tools and measures which can have a real impact on the peasant farmers who produce coffee.
The simple act of a caffè sospeso – which we promote for International Coffee Day – will strengthen the link between consumers and producers and will finance projects to help producers in economically disadvantaged areas”.
“Coffee4Change” by Oxfam involves a digital fundraising campaign through the dedicated platform coffee4change.oxfam.org
