Cecafé initiatives within the Social Responsibility and Sustainability pillar

[Coffee Kids at School]. Solid information was collected from 133 laboratories, representing 97% of the total. From those, 76% remain active (102 rooms) and 24% are inactive or extinct (31 rooms).

 

 

 

Considering the 102 active digital laboratories, the current conditions were evaluated to know the investment needs. Excellent conditions: 60%, i.e., 61 laboratories with at least 8 operating computers; Good and acceptable conditions: 37%, i.e., 38 laboratories with 4 to 7 computers; Poor conditions: 2%, representing 2 laboratories with less than 4 computers.

 

 

Digital coffee farmer

The Program Produtor Informado [Digital Coffee Farmer], created by Cecafé in 2006 to bring  digital inclusion to  rural regions, was significantly expanded in 2016. Through the beginning of the partnership with the Global Coffee Platform, in addition to digital inclusion, the Program started to disseminate sustainability in coffee production. Such content helps the adoption of good practices in productive systems and therefore, can increase business profitability and coffee quality,  while ensuring environmental sustainability and improvement of life conditions for the rural population in general.

In addition to classes, several Field Days were promoted with the objective of showing, in practice, efforts to seek for the increasingly sustainable coffee production, with higher productivity and expansion of research application, technology and field improvements.

For that, Cecafé also established cooperation terms with extension entities, which provided agriculture technicians to teach classes. Currently, the Program counts on  partnerships with Emater-State of Roraima, Emater-State of Minas Gerais, Fundação Hanns Neumann, Ifes-Agrifes, Via Verde, Cooabriel, Coocapec and Cooxupé, reaching 45 municipalities of the main producing states (Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, São Paulo and Roraima).

Thus, exceeding in 100% the goal established, there were 125 groups in 2016, training 1,500 rural producers, resulting in the qualification of more than 2,600 attendees since the creation of the Program in 2006.

 

Expectations for 2017: sustainable coffee hub

Based on the audit performed in the digital laboratories, the Deliberative Council of Cecafé has decided to renew and integrate the Programs, revitalizing digital laboratories in good, acceptable and poor conditions, which will integrate, as of 2017, the Polo Café Sustentável [Sustainable Coffee Hub], aims at strengthening Brazilian coffee production sustainability actions.

The Hub will represent the regional influence zone of sustainability actions, held, mostly, in the digital laboratories initially created for the Program Criança do Café na Escola [Coffee Kids at School]. It will be focused on people that interact with coffee production, such as:

According to the flowchart below, through partnerships and an information management system, the main Cecafé digital laboratories will be identified and transformed into hubs for implementing regionally integrated programs, also including teachers, young people and rural producers.

 

Teachers and students of the public system elementary schools

Children will be trained for digital inclusion, and will also have access to folders and playbooks on the importance of the rural producers and coffee for the region. This process aims at valuing the coffee image in order that children recognize the importance of coffee producers and this industry for Brazil. The intention is to implement everything through digital inclusion.

Teachers, the major information  replicators, will be trained by e-learning, practical guides and sessions, with the objective of creating the cognitive and educational environment to form future citizens and qualified manpower for the fields. Quarterly lectures are planned with teachers of the main schools of the region, including a computer workshop for inclusion.

Young people in the rural environment

For young people, family succession and entrepreneurship topics are extremely important. According to Embrapa, Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária [Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation], by 2030, approximately 40% of the rural producers will leave the activity. Added to that, according to Sebrae, Serviço Brasileiro de Apoio às Micro e Pequenas Empresas [Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service], 70% of family companies end their activities due to the death of the founder and only 5% of the remaining ones survive to the 3rd generation.

Most of young people opt to leave the field to seek for better work conditions in large cities. Therefore, the challenge is to propose  actions in order to  make young people see  opportunities in the field, with quality of life and income serving as encouragement to enable them to continue producing quality and sustainable coffee.

Rural Producers

Concerning rural producers, computer and sustainability classes, emphasizing good agriculture practices, will continue. However, a new module will be created, called Produtor Informado Avançado [Advanced Informed Producer], focused on producers that have already concluded the first phase. It is a demand identified directly by rural producers in several regions and this module will offer deep content on tools for field work and property management through the adoption of good agriculture practices and benchmarking for production costs.

As a result of all efforts for consolidating the sustainability in the Brazilian coffee production, Cecafé has improved the Code of Ethics and Behavior. This Code represents a solid incentive for an increasing amount of companies in the market to undertake efforts in the social and environmental fields and collaborate at making the entire community aware of the importance of sustainability in the coffee production chain.

The main principle is the observation of the provisions of the Code. This way, the members associated to Cecafé seek for transferring to their supply chain the ethics and commitment with the national legislation. Thus, the Sustainability Cecafé Seal (image on the right) was created as a symbol  to the initiative. The associated members may use the seal in different ways in their communications and products.

Final considerations

Although 2016 was challenging in many aspects, considering the context detailed above, we finished the year with clear commitment to the coffee production development. The expectation for 2017 is hope: the efforts of all coffee chain place us in the right path to ensure  Brazil competitiveness and absolute leadership in the world coffee trade. During the new year ahead, we will act to leverage even more the sustainable coffee production in Brazil. Welcome 2017!

 

Marcos Matos – General Director of Cecafé