GENEVA, Switzerland – Sucafina, a leading sustainable Farm to Roaster coffee company, is launching Impact – the responsible sourcing program that benefits farmers, traders, and roasters to create a fairer, more resilient coffee industry. The Impact program includes a sustainability standard that guarantees compliance with environmental, social, and economic best practices, while also driving measurable, positive change in five key areas of sustainability.
From climate change and deforestation to human rights, poverty, and unsustainable farm practices, the coffee supply chain faces major challenges. Sucafina is committed to working with partners along the value chain to foster a more sustainable coffee industry.
The Impact program
The Impact program is designed to ensure that the most pressing sustainability needs are met at coffee’s origin while enabling other stakeholders to achieve their sustainability goals.
Justin Archer, Head of Sustainability at Sucafina, said: “We are committed to respecting sustainable and ethical standards in all our operations, especially in our direct supply chains.”
Archer said: “The Impact program pushes the needle even further by elevating and rewarding farmers for their role in reshaping the coffee industry for good while also increasing the supply of fully traceable, responsibly sourced coffee to help roasters meet their sustainability commitments.”
At the heart of the program is the Impact Sustainability Standard. To be classified as ‘sustainably sourced,’ all farmers and facilities in a supply chain must comply with 10 mandatory Critical Indicators – designed to eliminate human rights abuses – as well as the required number of Improvement Indicators, which cover all other sets of sustainable practices and must be improved over time.
The indicators are modelled on the Global Coffee Platform’s Sustainability Reference Code – the industry standard for benchmarking responsible sourcing programs. Supply chains will be audited by a third party every three years – during harvest season to properly test the adoption of best practices. All IMPACT-verified coffee will be fully traceable to the farmer level.
With many existing standards, the focus is on compliance. Impact goes further by also delivering measurable improvement across five Impact Goals: 1) reducing carbon emissions; 2) reducing deforestation; 3) promoting human rights for farmers and farm workers; 4) improving living income for farmers; and 5) increasing the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices among farmers.
Sustainability in coffee
Sucafina will systematically collect supply-chain data and partner with farmers, roasters, and other stakeholders to design and implement projects that deliver transformation across these five key areas of sustainability in coffee and create shared value for all.
Nicolas A. Tamari, ceo of Sucafina, said: “Farmers are at the heart of our business. They must be at the heart of our sustainability goals and practices. IMPACT gives Sucafina the opportunity to play a leading role in reshaping the industry and supporting coffee growers in making sustainable and profitable choices. It furthers our purpose of delivering sustainable, shared value across the supply chain.”
Sucafina origins have already started to implement Impact in their supply chains and will offer Impact-verified shipments from certain origins as of early 2023.
The goal is for all of Sucafina’s direct supply chains to become Impact verified by 2025.
Sucafina invites interested roasters to contact their trader to learn more. Read more here.
About Sucafina
Sucafina is a leading sustainable Farm to Roaster coffee company, with a family tradition in commodities that stretches back to 1905. Today, with more than 1,200 employees in 32 countries, the Group is one of the leading coffee trading houses in the world and one of the few focused entirely on coffee.
Sucafina’s extensive supply chains span from producer-facing export operations to destination sales offices around the world.
