Sustainability continued as a global relevant theme during 2017 and Cecafe consolidated many positive actions for the entire Brazilian coffee industry. Strategic Planning for the years 2016-2018 was followed, including the adoption of new projects and programs in the areas of Social Responsibility and Environmental Conservation.

Cecafe was present in events, discussions and work groups on sustainability, climate changes, labor, environmental and regulatory issues in order to maintain the institution up-to-date on the main themes that were being discussed globally and, consequently, to evaluate challenges and opportunities. Our programs continue active and received special attention regarding improvements and modernization, while new projects and promising partnerships were consolidated. Below are the main highlights of the year:

In face of international challenges to coffee exports, Cecafe, in a partnership with the Sindicato Nacional da Indústria de Produtos para Defesa Vegetal (SINDIVEG), coordinated the meeting to reactivate the Café Seguro program, and to discuss phytosanitary questions related to Brazilian coffee production.

Representatives of the following institutions were at the meeting: Embrapa Café, Instituto de Economia Agrícola (IEA), Cooperativa Regional de Cafeicultores em Guaxupé (Cooxupé), Conselho Nacional do Café (CNC), Comissão Nacional do Café da CNA, Associação Brasileira da Indústria de Café (Abic), Associação Nacional de Defesa Vegetal (Andef), Sindicato Nacional da Indústria de Produtos para Defesa Vegetal (Sindiveg). Also present were professionals of agrochemical companies such as Syngenta, Basf, Dow, Bayer, Monsanto, Helm do Brasil, Sumitomo Chemical, Nufarm Brazil, and Arysta.

The Café Seguro Program was started in 2011 by Cecafe with the purpose of making farmers aware and to guide them about the correct use of agricultural pesticides, to guarantee coffee beans were free of contaminants. Through actions carried out in Field Days, Café Seguro has already visited 20 cities and towns and contributed to train approximately 10 thousand coffee farmers.

 

The Digital Coffee Farmer Program, created by Cecafe in 2006 to take digital inclusion to rural areas, continued its successful partnership with the Coffee Global Platform in 2017. There were 100 classes that took digital inclusion and good agricultural practices knowledge to over 1,220 students. In addition to classes, several field days were promoted with the purpose of showing in practice efforts to obtain increasingly more sustainable coffee production, with better yield and expanding the use of research, technology and improvements in the field.

Cecafe also created the website of the program, in which it is possible to check the data and results reached; it also contains details of the partner institutions, functioning as an organization system for instructors and for administrators. Therefore, Cecafe gained efficiency in controls and more detailed analyses of the Program, always aiming at continuous improvement and efficiency. Since the beginning of the Program, approximately 5,000 farmers attended it, and more than 2,600 of them are enrolled in the control system created in 2016.

The successful partnerships with EMATER/MG, INCAPER, EMATER/RO, IFES, Fundação Hanns Neumann, Cooxupé, Via Verde, Exportadora Guaxupé, Cocapec, and Cooabriel continue to contribute for the program to be a reference to others and for the expected results to be reached in the four main producing states (Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo, São Paulo and Rondônia). The program is present in more than 100 municipalities. New partnerships are expected in 2018, with the purpose of making the program increasingly better.

 

Cecafe was present at the International Coffee Week with a multi-stakeholder stand to promote Sustainability and Social Responsibility actions. Partners of the initiative were Fundação Hanns Neumann, Instituto Inpacto together with the American NGO CSR, and the Global Coffee Platform. The company Três Corações also contributed supplying coffee machines and a barista to serve coffees produced by small farmers of the state of Minas Gerais who took part in the Digital Coffee Farmer Program.

The multi-stakeholder initiative demonstrated the strength of the inter-institutional partnerships for Sustainability and Social Responsibility to be increasingly more integrated in Brazilian coffee chain operations. The stand received representatives of the academic world, public and private sectors, in addition to farmers including participants of the Digital Coffee Farmer Program.

Furthermore, the General Director of Cecafe, Marcos Matos, was the mediator of the panel “Perspectives for Coffee in Large Consuming Markets”, and the Technical Director, Eduardo Heron, took part in the “Innovation for Agribusiness” panel, presenting Cecafe’s initiatives, including the the Digital Coffee Farmer Program, in which Marjorie Miranda took part stressing the profile of farmers who attend the Program.

Cecafe strengthen its relationship with Instituto Inpacto – the main national institution that is entirely dedicated to eradicate slave labor in Brazil. From the discussions the Brazil Coffee Table Project was created. The project, aligned with the demand and international expectations and transparency requirements of the global market, is to expand the involvement of all players in promoting a positive and transforming agenda for decent work conditions in the coffee productive chain. It aims at promoting the transparency of social protection actions in Brazilian coffee production, initially in the state of Minas Gerais. The project has the support of the American NGO Catholic Relief Services and of Cecafe.

Another highlight is the Programa Criança do Café na Escola, which began in 2003, with the purpose of creating Digital Labs, with computer equipment and access to the internet, having the educational support offered by an educator hired by Cecafe. 137 Digital labs were installed in 95 coffee producing municipalities, in addition to 1.27 thousand computers (10 computers per classroom), 116 of them with access to the internet, with a restated investment of approximately R$9 million.

Family Succession Program

For youngsters, the family succession and entrepreneurship are important. According to Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa), until 2030 approximately 40% of rural producers will leave the activity. Furthermore, according to the Brazilian Support Service to Micro and Small Companies (Sebrae), 70% of family companies close their doors with the death of their founder and only 5% of those that survive will survive until the third generation.

Most youngsters opt to leave the fields and look for better work conditions in the large cities. Therefore, the challenge is to propose actions for youngsters to view the opportunities in the field, with quality of life and income as an incentive for them to continue producing coffee with quality and sustainability.

 

Sustainability Report

All actions of the industry will be compiled annually and presented in the Sustainability report prepared by Cecafe. The text will serve as a marketing tool for the whole export industry, for the domestic and international markets and will count with indicators: number of individuals benefited by the programs; organizations involved and private social investments.

 

Performance indicators of the Coffee Export Sector (IDEXCafe)

Through partnerships established and the information management system, the IDEXCafe has the purpose of contributing in a significant way to monitor and promote the various Social Responsibility and Sustainability actions of the export business.

 

Final Considerations

In general, there is a consensus that 2017 was a tough year with many challenges for Brazil, especially for agribusiness and for the export sector. However, it is in adversity that greater opportunities arise and the Cecafe team closed the calendar year 2017 confident that it is contributing for Brazilian coffee to continue in the right path for an increasingly more sustainable and socially responsible future.

 

Marjorie Miranda – Social Responsibility and Sustainability Coordinator of Cecafe.