Coffee brands must influence consumer demand for shade grown coffee

London, 28 October 2017: Earth Security Group has today launched a CEO Briefing for Agri-Business in Latin America focussing on Coffee Production, providing coffee companies, farmers, retailers and policy makers a view of key Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) priorities for industry security and growth.

The Briefing comes at a crucial time, as Latin America accounts for 60% of global coffee production and by 2050, global coffee production must triple to match global demand. Rising temperatures are not suitable for coffee crops. It highlights the issue of coffee farmers in Latin America switching to more economically attractive crops or leaving farming and migrating to urban areas because of large-scale crop disease emergencies, social inequality and income levels that do not provide a basic living wage.

Shade-grown and biodynamic coffee production, where crops are cultivated below a canopy of trees, reduces the costs of fertilizers and pesticides and enhancing resilience to higher temperatures, lower rainfall, and pests. It goes on to recommend that global brands such as Starbucks shape global consumer demand for shade-grown coffee to enable realistic economics and resilient conditions for Latin American coffee farmers in the face of growth demand.

Earth Security Group CEO, Alejandro Litovsky, noted, “This is a crucial issue as despite the scientific evidence that regenerative models, such as shade-grown and biodiverse coffee production can enhance climate resilience, the share of shade-grown coffee in global production has continued to shrink. We believe that global brands can shape global consumer demand to make this necessary change, as we have seen before with the popularity of cold brew, Nespresso or the flat white.”

The use and value of the report was outlined by its key supporters; Zoe Knight, Group Head, HSBC Centre of Sustainable Finance HSBC commented “This report’s clear and powerful analysis sets out both how to integrate ESG issues strategically and how to focus
on SDG impacts that are material to economic growth. Crucially for SDG implementation, the Earth Security Group has created a framework, which translates the aims set out by the goals into tangible metrics for corporates and investors.”

For more information on the CEO Briefing, and to download a copy: www.earthsecuritygroup.com/strategy-briefs/ceo-briefing-agri-business-latin-america-coffee-production

This brief is part of our Earth Security Report 2017. Download the full report from www.earthsecuritygroup.com

Earth Security Group are advisors helping companies, investors and governments to create a strategic and progressive response to global resource security challenges. Their mission is to align the growth of companies with the sustainable development priorities of the countries on which they depend.

Earth Security Group
22 Upper Ground, London, SE1 9PD, UK

Claire Poole
Claire@earthsecuritygroup.com

This release was published on openPR.