Nestlé launches Nescafé Plan to optimise coffee supply chain
Nestlé has launched the Nescafé Plan containing a set of objectives to help the company further optimise its coffee supply chain and announced it will invest CHF 500 million (£320m) in coffee projects by 2020.
Over the next five years, Nestlé will double the amount of Nescafé coffee bought directly from farmers and their associations, eventually purchasing 180,000 tonnes of coffee from around 170,000 farmers every year.
With the support of the Rainforest Alliance and the 4C Association, all directly purchased green coffee will meet the internationally-recognized 4C sustainability standards by 2015. In addition, 90,000 tonnes of Nescafé coffee will be sourced according to the Rainforest Alliance and Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) principles by 2020.
Nestlé will also distribute 220 million high-yield, disease-resistant coffee plantlets to farmers by 2020 to help them multiply yield on existing land and plans to expand its technical assistance programmes, in which Nestlé agronomists provide advice on farming and post-harvest practices, to over 10,000 coffee farmers a year.
Tensie Whelan, President of the Rainforest Alliance, said: "The Nescafé Plan is about looking ahead, to the future of coffee farming. We see this collaboration as an exciting opportunity to bring sustainability tools to thousands of farmers, including many who have not had the benefit of training and technical assistance."
The Nescafé Plan comes on top of the Cocoa Plan, launched in October 2009, a CHF 110 million (£70m) investment to improve the quality of cocoa which includes the distribution of 12 million high-yield, disease-resistant cocoa plantlets by 2020.