Sustainable Coffee: Past, Present and Future

From oat flat whites to long blacks, from V60 pourovers to the aeropress, coffee is consumed by up to 40% of the world’s population. With over 25,000 coffee shops in the UK alone and barista’s becoming rockstars, is there more to the story of this trendy stimulant? This report summarises some of the historic and current challenges in financially viable and sustainable coffee production. It also describes a model designed to deal with some of these challenges in the future.

Worldwide, an estimated 125 million people are dependent on coffee for their livelihoods. More than 50 countries produce and export coffee, almost all in the developing world. Like most commodity trades, coffee has been characterised by boom and bust cycles due to an imbalance of supply and demand. In the early 20th century, attempts to stabilise coffee prices rested on efforts from countries like Brazil. Through the “Marxist valorisation scheme” around 1905–1908 Brazil led to the excessive production of coffee. In order to reduce production and increase prices, a tax policy introducing levies on coffee hectarage, was implemented. In the decades to come, the price of coffee fell, with the market reaching as low as 40 cents per pound on the New York Stock Exchange. Farmers’ production costs constituted to around 70 cents per pound. This has resulted in poverty and food insecurity in countries where most coffee producers had been simply subsistence farmers. They have then struggled to survive when they attempt to switch to commercial coffee farming.

Coffee production is characterised by huge levels of instability, with a large crop one year, followed by a smaller crop the next, and so forth. In the world coffee market, price volatility is a large concern for all stakeholders. In exporting countries, price volatility leads to instability in producer incomes and uncertainty of export earnings and tax revenues. In importing countries, price volatility affects profit margins for roasters, traders, and stockholders. All these factors make the coffee crop less attractive throughout the supply chain, especially to growers, who will seek more remunerative crops to replace coffee. Coffee production, export, and consumption have steadily increased since 2006. The top ten producers account for almost 88% of total global coffee production and exports. Among the top producers are Brazil, Colombia, and Vietnam with their combined export around 60% of the global total. Due to increasing pressures from rapid population growth, high levels of biodiversity are under threat. In addition to these countries growing the coffee, most countries are involved in coffee processing as well (such as Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and others). Coffee has a central role in their national economies. Despite coffee’s importance, coffee exports from Africa have steadily declined, leading to food insecurity among resource- poor and small-scale farmers. There are several reasons for the decline. These include market volatility, inadequate access to markets and improved technologies; inefficient legal policy frameworks, and climate-associated risks. All of this has contributed to the neglect of commercial coffee farms and/or changing back to subsistence farming to tackle food insecurity.

Some people might argue, “As long as there is coffee in the world, how bad can things be?” The demand for high-quality coffees resulted in increased costs of production and processing that are beyond the capacity of most coffee farmers in Africa. In addition, the coffee marketing system and sharing of benefits must pass through a complex value chain, with the benefits rarely reaching the poor communities in developing countries. This has resulted in the contributions of many different sustainability initiatives to be investigated. Many specialty café’s and roasteries across the world have already implemented serious measures to make ethically sources coffee. With stakeholders, such as farmers in the value chain, being paid and treated fairly.

Businesses of all sizes have published in-depth sustainability reports and joined sustainability movements, such as B Corp (Benefit Corporation). Their goal is to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy where the company behind the product has proven it exists to serve the common good. There are now over 5,000 B Corp certified organisations. The rapid shift in this has resulted in members of the public boycotting brands which have failed to reach their own published sustainability targets they set for the future. There is an urgent need to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change on coffee production by maintaining quality environments through organisation of deforestation and forest degradation. Immediate measures are needed to identify and implement conservation strategies to stop threats arising from climate change to coffee ecology and production. Premium prices for quality coffees should be addressed immediately. This will lead to sustainable development of the coffee sector, and therefore enhance the well-being of infrastructure poor farmers in developing countries. This process will require tight partnerships along the whole coffee value chain consuming and producing countries for coordination of sustainable initiatives for the future of the global coffee economy.

In the coming decades, climate change will have a huge impact on coffee production, especially “C.Arabica”, which is a climate-sensitive species. Noticeable effects of climate change have already prevailed and are remarkably relevant, such as, a hotter climate and less and more erratic precipitation have already been documented in coffee producing regions.

In recent years, droughts have become more frequent in coffee regions, and they are expected to increase in severity as we live through the years of the 21st century. The changes in temperature and rainfall will lead to a decrease in areas suitable for coffee cultivation. Direct impacts of climate change will result in stressed growth of coffee trees, limited flowering and berry development, poor yield, and ultimately poor quality of the coffee beans. Severe outbreaks and spread of diseases (such as leaf rust, coffee berry disease, and wilt), insects (coffee berry borers and scales) will be experienced, such as the coffee leaf rust epidemic of Central America in 2012/2013.

In Central America, since 2000, the area has been highly affected by the coffee berry borer, which is an insect native to Africa, have gradually increased. According to the Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI) it can attack between 50% -100% of the cherries, damaging at least one seed per cherry. By the time of harvest, it can cause severe crop losses and result in poor-quality coffee that is challenging to market. The pest originated in Africa, but today it’s present in nearly every coffee-producing country in the world. As of 2017, only Nepal is free from it. In certain areas severe hurricanes will most likely become more frequent. Developing adaptation strategies will be critical in sustaining the coffee economy and livelihoods in many countries.

In 2016, World Coffee Research and the Global Crop Diversity Trust spearheaded the development of the Global Conservation Strategy for Coffee Genetic Resources. World Coffee Research (WCR) is a collaborative, not-for-profit organisation with the mission to grow, protect, and ultimately enhance supplies of quality coffee while improving the livelihoods of the families who produce it. The program is funded and driven by the global coffee industry: by producers and executed by coffee scientists around the world. The Global Crop Diversity Trust (The Crop Trust) is an international organization working to safeguard crop diversity. The Crop Trust is an essential funding element of the United Nations International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), an agreement which includes an impressive figure of 135 countries.

Consumers are becoming increasingly curious about where their coffee comes from, such as sustainable production methods and social justice in the coffee value chain. This global strategy aims to ensure the conservation and use of coffee resources for the sustainable future of the crop and for those dependent on coffee for a livelihood. Through multinational stakeholders engaged in various aspects of coffee production, the strategy will act as a framework for bringing together stakeholders at all levels.

Further Reading:

1. Crowe,T.J.(2009). Coffee Pests in Africa. In J.N Wintgens (Ed.), Coffee: Growing, processing,

sustaimable production- A guidebook for growers, processors, tradersm and researchers (2nd

ed.,pp. 425-477). Weinheim: Wiley-VCH. Descroix.

2. F., & Snoeck, J. (2009). Environmental factors suitable for coffee cultivation.

3. In J. N.Wintgens (Ed.), Coffee: Growing, processing, sustainable production—A guidebook for

growers, processors, traders, and researchers (2d ed., pp. 168–181). Weinheim: Wiley-VCH.

4. Kufa, T. (2010, February). Environmental sustainability and coffee diversity in Africa. Paper

presented at the World Coffee Conference, International Coffee Organization, Guatemala

City.

5. NCA (National Coffee Association). (2017). Coffee around the world.

6. Osorio, N. (2002). The global coffee crisis: A threat to sustainable development. London:

International Coffee Organization.

7. Ponte, S. (2004). Standards and sustainability in the coffee sector: A global value chain

approach. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the International

Institute for Sustainable Development.