Nestlé helps secure future of coffee farming

MANILA, Philippines – Swiss food and beverage giant Nestle remains committed to invest in the Philippines, particularly in the coffee sector as part of a global push to bring sustainable coffee production and sourcing practices to scale.

The Philippines is Nestle’s biggest market in Southeast Asia and one of the  top 10 biggest markets worldwide.

Nestlé recently hosted the first work group committee meeting of Philippine coffee industry multi-stakeholders who committed “to make Asia grow with coffee” under Grow Asia, the partnership catalyzed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in collaboration with the ASEAN Secretariat.

Grow Asia facilitates multi-stakeholder cooperation for sustainable and inclusive agricultural development in Southeast Asia.

“It is my belief that a multi-stakeholder partnership like this is one which will truly help revive the local coffee industry and by doing so uplift the lives of our local farmers,” said Jacques Reber, CEO and chairman of Nestle Philippines.

Grow Asia focuses on the development of smallholder farmers and the environmental sustainability of agriculture.

It draws from the experience of the WEF’s New Vision for Agriculture initiative, which serves as a platform to build collaboration among stakeholders to achieve a vision of agriculture as a driver of food security, environmental sustainability and economic opportunity.

Nestlé is involved with Grow Asia through the NESCAFÉ Plan, a global initiative which supports responsible coffee farming, production and consumption.

Through this program, Nestlé hopes to make coffee farming a more profitable and sustainable livelihood for many coffee-dependent communities. This mission can be facilitated and realized through multi-stakeholder cooperation featuring private and government participation.

The Nescafe Plan is a major undertaking in Nestlé’s strategy of Creating Shared Value (CSV) in its business activities.

“There is a huge opportunity for the Philippines to turn around the coffee industry and again be self-sufficient,” said Ernie Mascenon, Nestlé Philippines corporate affairs head.

“We want to be able to buy as much local coffee beans from farmers, help them improve their income from better yields, and give jobs to as many people as possible who are connected, one way or another, to coffee.

 The NESCAFÉ Plan is a collaborative effort and we are working with various stakeholders in the coffee industry to truly make a difference in the lives of coffee farmers. Through Grow Asia, this multi-stakeholder collaboration can be a reality,” Mascenon said.

The meeting aimed to bring significant stakeholders together to form a Philippine coffee working group to address issues and opportunities in the sector as well as expand current partnerships to engage more local private sector and other stakeholders.

Attendees were divided into value chain component groups for input provision,  farming,  financing, and value chain.

The end project will focus on Project Kape, which will provide full value chain support for a Robusta coffee community in Mindanao, with the Arabica group likewise engaged in their own version.

There will also be a focus on Project Agritech, to support the extensive new planting in Leyte for the typhoon Haiyan survivors’ agriculture coconut inter-crop with coffee. With over a million coffee trees provided by the government, the project requires multi-stakeholder support.

A record 60 participants attended the meeting, including officials from the Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries, Philippine Statistical Authority, Department of Trade and Industry, and the National Convergence Initiative. The private sector for both Robusta and Arabica coffee varieties.

NGOs and academe were represented by attendees from Word Wildlife Fund, Philippine Business for Social Progress, Catholic Relief Services, coffee players MacNut and Philippine Coffee Alliance, Ka Tribu, UA&P, DLSU and CAVSU. Also represented were financial institutions BPI and Landbank, which provided funding for some marketers in Mindanao immediately after the meeting.