ICO announces global campaign to warn consumers about coffee producers’ crisis

• At the end of the 122nd session of the International Coffee Council (ICC); these meetings were attended by representatives of Colombian coffee growers, including members of the Steering and National Committees of Coffee Growers and the FNC CEO, who drove the resolution issued by the ICC, which recognizes that current prices do not reflect the physical coffee market and do not cover costs.
• The Colombian delegation left explicit proof of the difficult situation that Colombian coffee growers are going through.
• This meeting served to bring together coffee growers from producing countries, who insisted on their call on the world coffee industry for the need for co-responsibility of the whole coffee chain.

Bogotá, September 21, 2018 (FNC Press Office) – The International Coffee Council, the highest authority of the International Coffee Organization (ICO), announced the launch of a global campaign to raise awareness among consumers of the crisis of low prices that affects coffee producers worldwide.

“To launch a global communication plan targeted at consumers, together with producers, the coffee industry, opinion makers and other stakeholders, using social media and other means of communications in order to show the economic reality of the coffee sector – from the producer to the final consumer- as of the International Coffee Day, on October 1, 2018,” reads the resolution 465 reached at the end of the 122nd session of the ICC meeting in London, United Kingdom, this week from September 17 to 21.

The resolution considered that the current market price levels do not allow coffee growers in most producing countries to cover their production costs, compromising their economic sustainability; that current prices do not reflect the physical market fundamentals; that consumption is a key instrument to guarantee the economic viability of the coffee value chain; and that the World Coffee Producers Forum has already expressed its concern about the situation of producers and will continue to address this issue at its next meeting in Brazil, in July 2019.

The International Coffee Council also decided:

• To instruct the ICO to promote dialogue among all stakeholders in the coffee value chain to ensure economic sustainability of coffee producers.
• To instruct the ICO to ensure that there is an effective exchange among member countries of national public policy initiatives promoting economic sustainability.
• To change the priorities of the ICO Strategic Plan to address “Profitability: Consumption and Productivity” in the coffee year 2018/19.
• To include promotion of consumption as a guideline in all ICO action plans aiming to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
• To encourage exporting members to adopt programs to further raise their domestic consumption level and encourage the ICO to support initiatives to explore alternative uses for low-grade coffee, in line with item 9 of resolution 420 (cost-effective alternative uses).
• To urge the Executive Director to further strengthen ties with the international roasting industry as a matter of urgency, in order to gain support for implementation of this resolution.