Nestlé awarded for efforts to help farmers grow coffee in China

Nestlé’s efforts to help farmers successfully grow coffee in a remote region of China have been recognised with a World Business and Development Award.

The international award acknowledges the company’s long-term commitment to providing farmers in Yunnan province with free agricultural assistance and training in coffee growing techniques.

It was presented to Nestlé at a ceremony at the Business Action for Sustainable Development Day, on the eve of the United Nations’ Conference on Sustainable Development Rio+20, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Long-term partnership

Nestlé has been helping farmers in Yunnan province develop the mountainous region into a thriving coffee growing district for the past 20 years.

Over that time, the company’s agronomists have trained more than 5,000 farmers in improved farm management, planting, quality control and processing techniques.

Nestlé has set up buying stations to procure coffee directly from farmers, helping them obtain better prices and a steady income. In turn, this has helped the company obtain a regular supply of quality coffee.

This is part of an approach to business Nestlé calls ‘Creating Shared Value’, which aims to create value for the company’s shareholders at the same time as for those communities where it operates.

Today, Nestlé purchases 8,000 tonnes of coffee annually in Yunnan province, or about 20% of the region’s total crop.

In total, the company’s coffee buying programme supports the livelihoods of up to 20,000 people.

Video interview with coffee farmers in China

Nestle started coffee development in Yunnan in 1988. The company established an agricultural assistance service in 1992 and inaugurated an experimental and demonstration coffee farm in 1997.

In 2011, the company extended its support for local farmers with the introduction of the Nescafé Plan in the region.

The ten-year, worldwide, CHF 350 million initiative brings together Nestlé’s commitments on coffee farming, production and consumption. It will see the company double the amount of coffee it buys directly from farmers and their associations by 2015.

World Business and Development Awards

The bi-annual World Business and Development Awards are organised by the International Chamber of Commerce, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF).

They were created ten years ago to recognise the important role of the private sector in implementing the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.

The awards seek to acknowledge innovative and productive business practices that help companies make the societies where they operate better places to live and work.

Nestlé is one of 11 winners of the 2012 awards, which are being supported this year by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Global Compact.

This year’s awards attracted 115 applications from organisations and companies in 38 countries.