Soluble promises: In Nestlé’s coffee business only the profits are sustainable

Zurich, Lausanne, 19. June 2024

With its Nescafé Plan, which was launched in 2010, Nestlé promised to improve the lives and the incomes of hundreds of thousands of people working on coffee farms. But our research in Brazil and Mexico shows that many of the coffee farmers taking part in the sustainability programme cannot make ends meet on the low prices paid by Nestlé. Voluntary industry or company initiatives of this kind do not go nearly far enough in combating the widespread poverty among coffee growers. Switzerland, which plays a particularly powerful role in this sector, must introduce stronger regulation on a political level to ensure that Nestlé and other coffee companies take their global responsibilities seriously.

Nestlé, which is based in Vevey in Switzerland, is the world market leader and earns a quarter of its revenue from coffee. On its Nescafé website, it promises to “use its global scale for good”. For example, from next year it intends to sell only “responsibly” sourced coffee. The most important component of this strategy is the Nescafé Plan, launched in 2010. According to Nestlé, it has improved the income of countless coffee producers by means of training courses and providing free plantlets. In addition, because it has 4C certification, it also guarantees environmentally, socially and economically sustainable coffee. A new report about “Nescafé’s soluble promises” highlights the glaring discrepancies between Nestle’s purely profit-oriented purchasing policies and the effective advertizing appeal of its sustainability rhetoric.

In the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo and in the Soconusco region in the state of Chiapas in Mexico, we have seen on the ground that the flagship programme has barely brought any improvements to the lives of the people living there. Very few checks are performed on the (minimal) requirements of the 4C standard and even fewer of the requirements are actually implemented. But our most important finding is that the Nescafé Plan has not improved the incomes of the farmers. On the contrary, many of them can barely cover their costs given the low prices that Nestlé has been paying for many years. The workers on the plantations earn starvation wages and, in Espírito Santo, there are often serious accidents because the harvesting machines are normally not fitted with the necessary safety equipment.

Millions of coffee farmers and workers are very far away from earning a living income, not only in these two important coffee-growing regions, but also worldwide. And the imbalance of power between international companies like Nestlé and the producers of their raw materials is continuing to increase. Last week, the industry and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) launched the Swiss Sustainable Coffee Platform (SSCP), yet another voluntary platform for dialogue. This multi-stakeholder approach leaves Switzerland, which plays a dominant role in the global coffee market, lagging far behind international developments. If we are to effectively address the abuses in the coffee sector, political measures are needed that will require companies to respect human rights – including the right to living incomes and wages – and to comply with environmental standards. One such measure is the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence directive which was adopted in May.

More information here or from:

Oliver Classen, media officer, +41 44 277 79 06, oliver.classen@publiceye.ch 

Carla Hoinkes, agriculture expert, +41 44 277 79 04, carla.hoinkes@publiceye.ch