Bean-to-cup: Brewing a green journey

If fables are to be believed, the first record of coffee growing in India was in 1670 in a quaint hill town of Karnataka. Today coffee has made it to the homes of millions, the meteoric growth of this beverage led us to a very pertinent question. Is the growth trickling down to the people who are actually growing the beans? And what is the environmental impact of this significant growth?

While some might point out that it’s a grey area with multi-faceted ramifications, but truth be told, it’s a journey we have to undertake to ensure that every bean produced is attached to a fair remuneration with least ecological impact.

For NESCAFÉ, this humble journey began in 2012 with a demo farm and a training center at Kushalnagar, Kodagu, in Karnataka with 500 coffee farmers.

10 years, 251 villages, more than 4400 coffee farmers (2400 s being 4C certified) ,7000 tons of sustainably sourced coffee later Nestlé India’s sustainability efforts continue at an accelerated pace.

The NESCAFÉ Plan was implemented to improve the livelihood of coffee farmers by incentivising coffee production with sustainable measures. As part of the NESCAFÉ plan, coffee farmers are trained on the NESCAFÉ Better Farming Practices and assisted with the Common Code for the Coffee Community (4C) certifications. Nestlé India recognises the efforts of farmers with 4C certification and remunerates them through a premium pay-out when purchasing coffee that is sustainably produced.

This virtuous circle for the coffee farmers - good manufacturing, good growing practices, better sustainability, ultimately motivates the community to make good quality coffee available and affordable today and in the future.

The NESCAFÉ Plan has not only resulted in a better quality yield of coffee and optimised the cost of production but has also positively impacted the biodiversity around the area by reducing water usage and improving fertilizer application thereby improving the environmental footprint.

Today, the plan has made an impactful contribution across 3 states – Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and has proven effective in reducing water usage at farms by 23% while resulting in an increase in yield by up to 18%.

This entire program has been essentially built on three simple fundamentals- paying attention to the needs of the farmers, building tenacious communities and making sustained effort to combat environmental challenges.

It is this continuously growing green coffee supply chain that is slowly catching the attention of the modern-day conscious consumer who are increasingly making purchases based on ecological implications attached to a product.

And as the emphasis on sustainability continuously intensifies, it’s important to chaperon the prosperity of every stakeholder across the value chain and reduce the environmental impact from the start of the product life cycle.

(The writer is Chairman and Managing Director, Nestlé India)

Check out the latest videos from DH: