DUBAI, UAE – At Gulfood 2017, Lavazza is launching its new product, the “¡Tierra! Selection!”, which is aimed at the foodservice industry.
The new premium Lavazza coffee blend with an intense taste is made with sustainable quality coffee from Rainforest Alliance certified farms.
The product will be available in the market from April 2017, and its coffee beans are selected and processed in compliance with the highest production standards.
The beans’ characteristics are enhanced through a slower roasting process that modulates the temperature level.
To complete its offer, Lavazza is also presenting Kafa, a single-origin coming from the Ethiopian region of Kafa which is recognised as an UNESCO “Biosphere Reserve” and is a World Heritage site.
Lavazza’s Kafa is a blend of 100% Arabica coffee grown at altitudes of 1,500-2,000 metres, in uncontaminated and naturally fertile soils. It has an aromatic and fragrant bouquet, with a predominance of intense floral notes, a typical aftertaste of honey and dates, and hints of ripe cherry.
¡Tierra! is a sustainability project launched in 2002 in partnership with the NGO Rainforest Alliance, with the aim of improving social and environmental conditions, as well as production techniques, in coffee-growing communities.
The ¡Tierra! programme, which includes the projects directly developed and managed by the non-profit Giuseppe and Pericle Lavazza Foundation, is chronologically divided in two phases: the first phase, which ended in 2009, involved three communities in Peru, Honduras and Colombia, while the second one, launched in 2010, concerned communities in India, Brazil and Tanzania.
Since 2013, the project has involved two communities in Ethiopia and Vietnam. In concrete terms, installations were created to improve and make the coffee-processing techniques more efficient; houses, schools and infirmaries were built or restored; micro-credit projects were established and, most importantly, on-site training programmes launched, with the aim of enhancing sustainable production techniques.
In the course of the years, activities have expanded to include healthcare and access to fresh drinking water in plantations and communities.
Focused on three key aspects — the quality of the end product, attention to the living conditions of the populations of coffee-growing countries, as well as environmental protection — the ¡Tierra! Project aims at improving the living conditions of farming communities and developing quality produces with an increasingly lower environmental impact, thanks to new agricultural techniques.
Today, ¡Tierra! is a complete range of products devoted to both the ‘home’ and ‘away-from-home’ sectors, including coffee from these communities, where thousands of small coffee farmers are included in training activities on agricultural sustainable practices aimed at improving the product quality.
