Nespresso, Fairtrade International Join Forces to Support Colombian Co-ops

Fairtrade International and Nespresso have teamed up on a long-reaching partnership under which Nespresso has committed to source a growing proportion of its coffee from Fairtrade-certified cooperatives. This partnership is designed to provide thousands of smallholder coffee farmers with even greater income security, as well as better support the development of strong, representative farmer organizations. 

The partnership unites Fairtrade with Nespresso’s AAA Sustainable Quality Program, which has had a proven impact in helping farmers improve quality, sustainability and productivity, as well as contributing wider social and economic benefits. The announcement comes as Nespresso celebrates 10 years of its AAA Program.

As part of the agreement, Nespresso and Fairtrade will look to introduce social welfare provisions to benefit farmers and their families, including health and accident coverage, and retirement planning. 

“Nespresso’s partnership with Fairtrade is great news for coffee farmers,” said Harriet Lamb, CEO of Fairtrade International. “This encourages the kind of development that not only helps whole communities; it further emphasizes the fundamental necessity of ensuring that quality of life of farmers is on a par with the quality of coffee they’re producing.” 

Nespresso will begin by purchasing Fairtrade coffee from farmers in Caldas, Colombia. Nespresso already sources from five Fairtrade-certified cooperatives in the region under the AAA Program. These cooperatives, comprising 7,000 small-scale farmers, were the first to join the Nespresso program in 2004. 

“By 2020, we aim to make a further contribution to smallholder farmer welfare through our Nespresso AAA Program by working with Fairtrade and our other partners. Our Nespresso AAA Farmer Future Program is an important piece in our larger goal of improving livelihoods for all coffee farmers in our supply chain,” said Jean-Marc Duvoisin, CEO of Nestlé Nespresso. 

As the AAA Farmer Future Program develops and its impact becomes apparent, Nespresso and Fairtrade will look to extend the partnership to other regions. The overall AAA Program comprises more than 56,000 smallholder farmers representing 80 percent of Nespresso’s total coffee volume.