VARGINHA, Brazil – Starbucks Coffee Company today announced the opening of its first Farmer Support Center in Brazil, and tenth globally. Located in Varginha, Minas Gerais state, the new Farmer Support Center extends Starbucks presence in a key coffee producing region and aims to provide valuable resources to local coffee communities as part of the company’s commitment to source coffee responsibly, for the betterment of people and the planet.
As Starbucks continues to work to improve the livelihoods of coffee farmers, the Farmer Support Center will enable Starbucks to work alongside local producers, suppliers and agencies to learn more about the unique environmental and social challenges facing the region, gain greater knowledge of advanced growing techniques, and collaborate on long-term solutions to best support farmers.
“At Starbucks, coffee is core to who we are and what we do,” said Alfredo Nuno, director Global Farmer Support Centers and Hacienda Alsacia at Starbucks. “The opening of the Starbucks Brazil Farmer Support Center represents an important milestone in Starbucks continued investments in coffee growing communities. As we aspire to ensure a sustainable future of coffee for all, we believe the knowledge we gather through the relationships built by this Farmer Support Center will play a significant role in our efforts to elevate the coffee-growing supply chain in Brazil and around the world.”
To promote transparent, profitable and sustainable coffee growing practices, Starbucks Sustainability Coordinators working at the Farmer Support Center will implement projects, workshops and trainings relevant to the unique needs of the coffee growers, such as safety best-practices and complex labor and environmental regulations. The Farmer Support Center also aims to provide on-the-ground trainings for C.A.F.E. Practices, the company’s ethical sourcing verification program, that measures farms against economic, social and environmental criteria.
“Starbucks physical presence through the new Brazil Farmer Support Center will enable more direct, timely and in the field conversations with the many farmers in our cooperative,” said Lucio Dias, Director of Guaxupé Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative. “We are looking forward to strengthening our relationship with Starbucks and working together to advance our mutual goal of producing high-quality coffee that adheres to both C.A.F.E. Practices and local rules and regulations in a sustainable way.”
Building on the proven success of Starbucks nine other Farmer Support Centers located in coffee-producing countries around the world, including a total of five in Latin America, the company leverages its Farmer Support Centers to provide open-source agronomy and trainings on ethical sourcing practices to farmers, regardless of whether or not they sell to Starbucks. Globally, since the opening of the first Farmer Support Center in 2004 in Costa Rica, the company has trained more than 200,000 farmers through the program.
