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Global network uniting stakeholders along the coffee supply chain launches

11.05.2021

Slow Food in collaboration with the Lavazza Group has launched the Slow Food Coffee Coalition. The objective of the new open network is to improve the relationship between farmers and consumers, strengthening the first and most fragile links in the supply chain, and promoting a better understanding of the production of coffee among those who buy it on a daily basis.

This latest venture between Slow Food and Lavazza aims to unite all the participants in the coffee supply chain, from growers to roasters to distributors to consumers, who are united by a love for the beverage and a desire for good, clean and fair coffee for all. The network is based on a model for relationships that is inspired by values of cooperation and based on changing approaches to production and consumption.

"This coalition is a real response to the crisis that we are living through, which loudly demands a major change," commented Carlo Petrini, Slow Food's president. "It is a concrete example of ecological transition, and as such it requires the conscious involvement of everyone who must interiorize and realize it, from those who care for the coffee plants to those who savour coffee in the cup."

Giuseppe Lavazza, Vice President of the Lavazza Group, described how Slow Food and Lavazza will work together: "In the founding concept of the Slow Food Coffee Coalition, there is an assumption of responsibility and a sharing of rights and duties. All the actors in the world of coffee will be called upon to take part in this challenging and innovative model. It will be an open working group, whose importance will become increasingly evident in a composite supply chain such as that of coffee. The need to construct alliances to develop knowledge, planning and content is therefore more and more clear."

The Slow Food Coffee Coalition will be coordinated by Emanuele Dughera. "We are in a moment in which the desire to create links and to cooperate, all together, towards new goals that would be hard to reach on our own, is emerging more strongly than ever," explained Dughera. "Only through an open and collaborative dialogue can we change the system and improve the coffee production chain, increasing the awareness of those who produce it, those who distribute and those who consume it."

The Slow Food Coffee Coalition is inviting all participants in the supply and distribution chain who are interested in coffee to sign up to its manifesto. This global network believes in preserving the environment, safeguarding fundamental human and labour rights, transparency and traceability, education and the right to the pleasure of a cup of coffee. Anyone can choose to join the coalition, to listen, learn and share, to encourage an exchange of ideas and good practices or to come up with new activities.

Supporting small-holder mountain producers from developing countries, the Mountain Partnership Products Initiative currently includes two coffee varieties from Panama and the Philippines. When sustainably managed, coffee production can have positive impacts on forest preservation in mountains and can play a key role in preserving biodiversity and mitigating and adapting to climate change. The coffee plants trap and store carbon in their roots, leaves, soil and in the trunks of the forest’s trees. In addition, shade-growing protects the fragile mountain soil from erosion and nutrient loss, respects the native forest ground cover, trees and extensive root systems and contributes to the prevention of landslides and floods that would devastate lowland communities.

The Mountain Partnership encourages its members working with coffee to join the coalition.

Photo by Fundación CoMunidad