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Nescafé Plan underway in Colombia


WEBWIRE

Nestlé today announced that Colombia will be the next coffee producing country to benefit from the Nescafé Plan.

Launched last August in Mexico City, the Nescafé Plan is a ten-year, CHF 350 million investment that brings together Nestlé’s commitments on coffee farming, production and consumption.

It will see Nestlé double the amount of coffee it buys directly from farmers and their associations over the next five years, eventually purchasing 180,000 tonnes of coffee from around 170,000 farmers per year.

In the first step in Colombia, the Nescafé Plan will directly impact around 1,200 coffee farmers. As well as expert training, they will receive thousands of high-yielding, disease-resistant coffee plantlets.

The plantlets will be used to renew around 700 hectares of farmland during 2011. A total of 50 million plantlets will be distributed in Colombia by 2020.

Manuel Andres, President of Nestlé Colombia, outlined the aim of the Nescafé Plan at a press conference in Bogotá.

He said: “We are proud to launch the Nescafé Plan in Colombia as part of our Creating Shared Value approach to business. For a company to be successful in the long-term, it needs to create value for its shareholders at the same time as creating value for the communities in which it operates.”

“Nestlé’s commitment to buying coffee directly from farmers, without intermediaries, adds worth to the entire value chain.” Luis Genaro Muńoz Ortega, General Manager of the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation

To carry out the plan, Nestlé Colombia will work in partnership with the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC), which represents more than 500,000 producers.

Fiona Kendrick, Senior Vice President of Nestlé’s Beverage Strategic Business Unit explained the alliance.

She said: “This is a new approach between a world-famous brand such as Nescafé, and a representative organisation of farmers such as the FNC, which seeks to deliver a better quality of life to its members.”

Luis Genaro Muńoz Ortega, General Manager of the FNC added: “Nestlé’s commitment to buying coffee directly from farmers, without intermediaries, adds worth to the entire value chain.”

Nestlé is already the largest direct coffee buyer in Colombia, accounting for the livelihoods of around 400,000 coffee growers and their families.

The initial stage of the Nescafé Plan in Colombia will focus on four municipalities in the region of Valle del Cauca: Andalucía, Bugalagrande, Sevilla and Tulúa.

The Nescafé Plan

The Nescafé Plan is part of a wider, CHF 500 million investment by Nestlé in coffee projects by 2020, including a CHF 150 million investment for Nespresso.

Nestlé will be assisted in meeting the Nescafé Plan’s farming objectives by the international non-governmental organisation Rainforest Alliance, partners of the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN), and the coffee association, 4C.

With their support, all green coffee directly purchased by Nestlé will conform to internationally recognised 4C sustainability principles by 2015.

In addition, Nestlé will source 90,000 tonnes of Nescafé coffee in line with the principles of the Rainforest Alliance and Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) by 2020.

Also by 2020, Nestlé will distribute 220 million high-yielding and disease-resistant coffee plantlets, which will allow farmers to rejuvenate their crops, multiply yield and increase their income.

This will be done through partnerships with public and private institutions in countries including Mexico, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, where Nestlé has already distributed over 16 million coffee plantlets in the past ten years.

Tensie Whelan, President of the Rainforest Alliance, welcomed the Nescafé Plan at its launch in Mexico City, describing it 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 follows Nestlé’s Cocoa Plan, launched in October 2009, a CHF 110 million investment to improve the sustainability of the cocoa industry which includes the distribution of 38 million high-yield disease resistant cocoa plantlets over the next 10 years.



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