Nespresso helps revive coffee in El Rosario, Colombia

05-Jun-2019 - Switzerland

Nespresso, the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC) and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation today announced a pilot program to help revitalize coffee production in the municipality of El Rosario, in the Nariño Department of Colombia.

The Howard G. Buffett Foundation has committed nearly USD 2 million to improve coffee farms and community infrastructure in El Rosario, a municipality where illicit crops continue to be cultivated. The pilot program will work with 100 farmers to implement sustainable farming practices that facilitate the growth of high quality coffee. Nespresso has committed to purchasing the coffee beans that these farmers will harvest. It builds on the company’s sustainable coffee-sourcing efforts, its work with Colombia’s farmers over the past 25 years, and its long-standing partnership with FNC.

The partnership follows a meeting between Colombian President Iván Duque, Howard Buffett; Jean-Marc Duvoisin, CEO of Nespresso, and the FNC CEO, Roberto Vélez, at Casa de Nariño in Bogotá, Colombia.

"Nariño’s fertile lands were once the undisputed provenance of the highest quality coffee, and they can be again," said President Duque. "We welcome the strong involvement of the private sector, the strength of this partnership and dedicated program to help restore the area back to a thriving coffee region with the highest levels of coffee production, contributing to a better quality of life for farmers in El Rosario. We hope similar efforts can exist in other regions of Colombia that are in need of change."

"Nariño has a long connection with nurturing and cultivating an exceptional coffee crop, and generations of farmers have crafted some of the rarest and highest-quality Colombian coffee. However, coffee production has been in decline in El Rosario, so this is an exciting program for us to support as it builds on our work with farmers in Colombia and other countries to revive coffees from origins, which are under threat. Through agronomy support and the premiums farmers earn by selling highest quality coffee, we help to provide long-term sustainability and resilience to coffee farming communities," said Jean-Marc Duvoisin, CEO of Nespresso. "We are committed to helping El Rosario reinvigorate their coffee production and, with it, the community’s pride."

https://www.yumda.com/en/news/1161369/nespresso-helps-revive-coffee-in-el-rosario-colombia.html