PDF Coff ee Barometer

Coffee Barometer

Content

1 Introduction 3 2 Market unrest 5 2.1 Roasters 5 2.2 Traders 8 2.3 Sustainability strategies 9 3 Stress factors 10 3.1 Production and value distribution 10 3.2 Wages and labour 12 3.3 Climate change and deforestation 13 4 Sustainability commitments 16 4.1 Investments in sustainability 16 4.2 Voluntary Sustainability Standards 17 4.3 Market demand 19 4.4 Sustainable Sourcing options 21 5 Coffee sector collaboration 26 5.1 A global vision 26 5.2 Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives 27 6 Conclusion 30

Endnotes 33 Sources 34 Annex: Sustainable Sourcing 35 Colophon 36

1 Introduction

Today's coffee trends include

premiumisation, convenience,

customisation, single-origin,

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and roast type. Consumers

increasingly appreciate

information about certified

sustainable and ethically

produced coffee.

It is widely perceived that in the global value chain of coffee profits are made in industrialised countries, at the expense of environmental and social problems in the coffee producing countries. Coffee is a buyers-driven supply chain, where roasters, retailers and traders maintain a high level of opacity enabling them to capture most of the gains. In sharp contrast with the margins made by farmers in developing countries, the multinational food giants and investments funds in the USA and EU expect to capitalise on growing demand in the coming decade. Billions are spent in countless acquisitions and mergers, positioning famous coffee brands in new markets. As the global coffee industry consolidates, it cuts costs to optimise profits which causes additional downward pressure in the value chain, which is increasingly felt by the producers at the farm level.

Trouble is brewing in the sector. A wide variety of complex and systemic issues -environmental, social and economic- jeopardises the future of coffee production. Price volatility, climate change and recurring outbreaks of pests and diseases threaten a structurally increasing global supply of good quality coffee, while consumption and therefore demand is expected to increase.

In this new edition of the Coffee Barometer, we pinpoint some gaping holes in our collective knowledge that urgently need to be tackled. For example, coffee production has been growing by over 20% (+26 million bags) since 2010, but we do not know how much forested land has been converted into farm land used for coffee production.1 Furthermore, it is assumed that 20-25 million smallholder farmers produce 70% of the coffee globally, an estimate that stands unchallenged in the last 15 years.2 The coffee

harvest therefore depends on millions of farmworkers; an important but invisible group of stakeholders. They remain largely voiceless in the discussions about a sustainable coffee sector.

To cope with such issues, stakeholders supporting a sustainable coffee sector have

been at the forefront of shifting towards the procurement of certified and verified

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coffee. Linking all stakeholders in the value chain with standards, training, certification,

and seals of approval, the coffee sector is more advanced than any other commodity.

Still, certification and verification systems appear unable to reach smallholder

producers in Africa and Asia, and drive market uptake in consuming countries.

Increasing demand also yields an opportunity for positive change. The growth of the

specialty coffee sector leads to more direct sourcing initiatives. If executed properly,

these can promote traceability and coffee quality, and provide a managed response to

some sustainability challenges.

Moreover, there is growing support for non-competitive sector collaboration, blending public and private investments to address fundamental sustainability challenges at an impactful scale. Such initiatives to bring about sector-wide change, like the Global Coffee Platform (GCP), the Sustainable Coffee Challenge (SCC) and national sustainability platforms, share many of the sector's sustainability goals. However, steering collective investments in the coffee value chain towards the development and implementation of solutions to sustainability issues, remains a difficult yet pressing challenge.

In this Coffee Barometer, we examine the recent boom of acquisitions and mergers, and track the main trends. We investigate the power relations embedded in the global coffee value chain, and the root cause of the main sustainability stress factors. In view of these challenges, we will examine the sector's strategies for change, and individual and collective efforts to create a truly sustainable coffee sector.

2 Market unrest

The global coffee industry is

consolidating, with countless

mergers and acquisitions in

5

the market. This could present

an opportunity to mainstream

sustainability efforts, but there

is little evidence that this is

happening within the newly

formed conglomerates.

2.1 Roasters

To the casual observer, the coffee market is highly diversified. In the streets thousands of independent coffee bars exist alongside big retail chains such as Starbucks, Costa Coffee and Dunkin' Donuts. In the supermarkets, the shelves are stacked with ample coffee options. Beyond the traditional roast and ground products, shoppers can choose from a wide range of single-serve options, next to Italian espresso beans and low profile instant coffee. Lining the refrigerated shelves of grocery stores are bottled or canned Ready to Drink Coffees (RTD), the fastest growing market segment.

This wealth of choice veils the underlying structure of the global coffee industry, which is in the mature stage of its life cycle. As growth stagnates among larger players, they acquire smaller companies and diversify their portfolio to generate growth. Rapid consolidation is transforming the global coffee industry from its roast and ground leaders, like Nestl? and Jacobs Douwe Egberts, to retailers, such as Starbucks and McDonald's. Beyond the traditional first wave roast and ground market, there is fierce competition at brand level in various market sub sectors, especially in the second and third-wave coffee (Figure 1).

After years of unrivalled market leadership, Nestl?'s global dominance of the coffee market is now being challenged by JAB Holding-- a German investment firm owned by the Reimann billionaire family. In the past six years, JAB Coffee (part of JAB Holdings) has been building a global coffee empire, investing over $50bn to acquire not only

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