Coffee does not grow in Switzerland, but in the so-called coffee belt, between the 23rd northern and 25th southern latitude parallel to the equator. Central America, Brazil, Indonesia, India, and Vietnam are among the major production regions, as is Eastern Africa with Ethiopia and Kenya. While coffee is omnipresent in our everyday lives, the social, ecological, and financial damage caused by coffee cultivation is far away.
The Responsible Business Initiative directly affects coffee cultivation, trade, and the responsibility of roasters. Federal Councillor Karin Keller-Sutter also cites coffee as an example in interviews<1><2>, yet uses it to build an argument against the initiative.
As a coffee roastery, Switzerland's largest coffee school, and co-operator of a coffee farm in Nicaragua, we vehemently disagree with Federal Councillor Karin Keller-Sutter's portrayal.
Instead, we see important momentum stemming from the Responsible Business Initiative that can contribute to a more sustainable and future-oriented coffee industry. For the Swiss coffee industry, the Responsible Business Initiative is an opportunity to position itself for the long-term future, to establish long-lasting trade relationships with producers, and to secure access to the increasingly scarce resource of coffee.
The RBI is a historical correction for the coffee industry
Over the last two centuries, the coffee industry has been able to hide behind anonymity. Production conditions, purchasing prices, trade practices, and the asymmetric power balance between producers in the Southern Hemisphere and the processing industry in the mostly Northern Hemisphere were long left unquestioned – and even when they were, much remained the same.
Recently, however, there have been more and more encouraging developments and an increased commitment within the international coffee roasting industry to transparency and fairness along the coffee chain<3>.
Opponents of the RBI say that "global supply chains with thousands of suppliers are highly complex" and "mostly lie outside the influence of the contracting entities"<4>. As a coffee roastery, we must disagree with this.
Every roastery has it in its own hands to carefully set up and monitor its own supply chain and to work together with partners who share a corresponding mindset. It is not outside the influence of the contracting entities – in this example, the coffee roastery – whether coffee can be procured with a cleanly prepared supply chain or not.
It has solely to do with the will and the standard as to whether this path of entrepreneurship is taken.
The fact that coffee chains can become traceable, more resilient, and more predictable is a development that is long overdue and has historically been treated quite laxly. For the coffee industry, the RBI is a correction with the potential to address the signs of the times.
Opportunities instead of risks for coffee roasteries
For a growing number of smaller and larger roasteries, the RBI has little or no impact. These roasteries source coffee directly or semi-directly (via intermediaries), build long-lasting relationships with coffee producers, and are in constant contact, both by phone and through travel to the cultivation countries.
The decision for direct sourcing is based, especially in smaller roasteries, on the desire to take shared responsibility. In many cases, higher prices are then paid for green coffee that are not based on the coffee exchange.
The larger the roastery, the more green coffee it buys. Thus, it is indirectly involved with a larger number of production and trade partners. While this also increases the effort, this does not release roasteries from their responsibility. Roasteries have the task of choosing green coffee suppliers conscientiously and carefully. Consumers should be able to rely on the fact that their coffee has been produced responsibly.
The Responsible Business Initiative is a complementary impulse here that can help to sharpen the focus even more on risks on coffee farms. It forms a basis for a targeted dialogue with trade partners. For the coffee industry and the coffee trade, the RBI is a necessary wake-up call to pay more attention to the sustainability of the value chain.
A trade relationship structured in this way is an opportunity, not a risk. Due to the growing coffee consumption in new markets like China or India and changing cultivation conditions due to climate change, the coffee industry will face a shortage of high-quality coffee over the next 15 years. Reliable, sustainable trade relationships based on shared responsibility secure access to the increasingly scarce resource of coffee for roasteries.
Philipp Schallberger and Benjamin Hohlmann
<2> SRF ARENA
