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  • Government officials of coffee-producing countries stressed the need to work along with all actors of the coffee value chain to address common challenges.

Medellín, Colombia, July 11, 2017 – Urging the coffee industry to work together for sustainability of producers, coffee-producing countries joined their voices Tuesday in the inaugural session of the 1st World Coffee Producers Forum.

“None of this makes sense if coffee farming is not a profitable activity for all actors of the chain. This includes, obviously, producers. There is no chain if there is no raw material,” said the host Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos. 

He highlighted that, by progressively being concentrated in a smaller number of players, the global coffee market has become more vulnerable, and because of the chain’s interconnectedness, if one actor is in trouble all the others are affected. 

As noted by the president, “coffee growers’ access to markets – particularly smallholders – is increasingly disadvantageous. The fact that they are forced to negotiate in unequal conditions should encourage us to have a realistic discussion on how to compensate these asymmetries.”

He stressed that the enthusiasm the Forum has raised confirms the coffee industry’s growing concerns about challenges that must be addressed collectively to guarantee the coffee chain’s sustainability. “We face great challenges; addressing them won’t be easy. But if we work together, coffee will continue to be a driver of development and equity for our societies.”

Carlos Alberto Cardona, president of the Steering Committee of the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC), noted that this institution is at the service of other producing countries to address common challenges. “We can’t build our future without supporting others,” he said.

As proof of the many similarities of coffee-producing countries, Costa Rica’s president, Luis Guillermo Solís, noted that coffee has been the driving force of rural development in his country as a “silent and fair land reform.”

He urged attendees and society as a whole to understand the importance of ensuring sustainability throughout the chain, starting by producers. “Let’s distribute wealth, not poverty.”

“The world’s 25 million coffee-producing families are demanding governments and markets to pay more attention to their needs. We are not asking for subsidies or charity; we are asking for support. The sector’s sustainability is a collective responsibility,” he said.

Juan Orlando Hernández, the president of Honduras, encouraged coffee-producing countries to create a common front to protect their interests. Rather than challenging the International Coffee Organization (ICO), the spirit of the initiative is to complement and coordinate efforts to advance in achieving fair conditions for coffee growers.

Óscar Ortiz, vice president of El Salvador, acknowledged the magnitude of the 1st World Coffee Producers Forum, noting that it started a conversation around the mechanisms needed by the coffee industry to build sustained and collective efforts.

Ortiz recognized that coffee has helped mitigate issues such as migration and poverty. He talked about El Salvador’s national pact to recover coffee production and stressed the importance of working together to overcome the sustainability challenges faced by producers.


‘ICO already works on sustainability of producers’

José Sette, ICO’s Executive Director, presented the different initiatives that the organization has been working on, including a new action plan and more accurate statistics, to foster sustainability of producers.

He said that ICO members understand the need to contribute to the coffee chain’s sustainable development, starting with livelihoods of smallholders.

Sette also said that many sustainability initiatives have focused on the social and environmental pillars, disregarding the economic dimension.