How much eco-certified coffee is purchased by the big coffee companies?
In late 2010, I posted data on how little sustainably-grown coffee was purchased by the world’s major coffee buyers. The post utilized mostly 2008 data, much of which came from a terrific publication, The Coffee Barometer 2009, which was put out by the Tropical Commodity Coalition. Unfortunately, TCC has now disbanded. They published a final Coffee Barometer, the 2012 edition1, which provides 2010 figures. I have updated the table below with new numbers from this report as well as other sources. I will be maintaining this table with periodic updates, using the methods described below.
Methods
I’m going to focus on the four major world buyers: Nestlé, Kraft, JM Smuckers, and Sara Lee. I will also include Starbucks, as a major world buyer; Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, which holds a top market share in the U.S.; and Caribou Coffee, the second-largest U.S. coffeehouse. Other players, some of which were mentioned in the previous post, are primarily European, or the data is not disclosed or difficult to uncover.
I’m going to consider eco-certifications or standards only: Rainforest Alliance and organic; since Smithsonian Bird-Friendly is produced in such tiny volumes and must be certified organic, it is included in the organic category. I also note Starbucks CAFE Standards. Although it only applies to Starbucks coffee, it includes good environmental criteria. I’ll disregard coffee purchased under Fair Trade and the 4C Code, neither of which have strong/meaningful environmental standards. I’ll mention but not count towards percentages Utz Certified and Nespresso’s AAA Program. You can read about all of these certifications and criteria on my certifications guide page.
Data sources will be linked (2008 data sources are in the previous post), or included in the footnotes. I’ve converted volumes to metric tons for comparison; some volumes and percentages are calculated or extrapolated from closely related figures.
purchases |
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| *Global share data is from 2009 based on data from Euromonitor published in the Wall Street Journal. U.S. share is from IBISWorld Industry Report 31192a. Coffee Production in the U.S. November 2011. **Note that often reporting is done by fiscal, rather than calendar, year. I've looked for the most recent data, which generally covers much of calendar year 2010. |
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| Nestlé Brands owned include Nescafé, Nespresso, Taster’s Choice, Clasico. | Global share of packaged coffee: 21.6% U.S. share: 16.3%. | 2008: 780,000 tons 2010: 870,000 tons1 (56,373 tons was Nespresso2) | 2010: 2000 tons Fair Trade, Utz, Rainforest Alliance, and/or organic1 (0.2%), see note. |
| Nestlé offers no organic varieties, so their small amount of certified purchases may not include organic; nor does Fair Trade certification have notable ecological criteria. In the previous post, I noted 13,000 tons (or 1.7%) were purchased under their proprietary Nespresso AAA Sustainable Quality program. For what it's worth, in June 2011, Nespresso reported2 it sourced 28,911 tons under the AAA program in 2010. This represents 3.5% of Nestlé's total purchases. Unfortunately, the criteria or standards for this program are not publicly available. They were developed in cooperation with Rainforest Alliance, but Nespresso states that their program was developed to improve quality, while Rainforest Alliance standards focus on protecting the environment. Nespresso has indicated that they are now working to help groups of farmers get Rainforest Alliance certification so the farmers can get more money for the coffee they choose not to sell to Nespresso3(my emphasis added). In August 2011, The Nescafé Plan was announced, which set a goal of sourcing 90,000 tons "according to Rainforest Alliance and Sustainable Agriculture Network principals" by 2020. It's unclear if that means certified coffee, or some set of standards that use the Rainforest Alliance criteria as guidelines. Under the best-case scenario, if all 90,000 tons of Nescafé purchases plus all 56,373 tons of Nespresso purchases were 100% RA-certified, it would still represent less than 18% of Nestlé's total purchases. |
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| Kraft Brands owned include Yuban, Maxwell House, General Foods International Coffee, Gevalia, Kenco, Maxim, Tassimo, Nabob, and Sanka. | Global: 13.6% U.S.: 17.6% | 2008: 740,000 tons 2010: 700,000 tons1 | 2008: 29,500 tons Rainforest Alliance (4%) 2010: 50,000 tons Rainforest Alliance (7%) |
| Some of Kraft coffees are organic, so either some of the Rainforest Alliance total is also organic, or there is some additional volume certified organic only. | |||
| JM Smuckers Brands owned include Folgers and Millstone (acquired from Procter & Gamble in 2008); Kava; Dunkin Donuts grocery store coffee; Rowland Coffee brands (acquired in 2011) including Café Bustelo and Café Pilon. In early 2012, Smuckers also purchased Sara Lee's North American foodservice coffee operations including Java Coast, and various convenience store, restaurant, and institutional accounts. | Global: 2.4% U.S.: 22.0% (prior to Sara Lee acquisition). | 2008: 280,000 tons (prior to acquisitions) 2010: 250,000 tons1 | 2008: 1,500 tons (0.5%) was certified either Rainforest Alliance, Fair Trade, and/or organic. 2010: data not disclosed. See note. |
| Smuckers is buying up coffee operations, which now make up the largest portion of the company's product sales. In addition to buying hardly any certified coffee of any sort, Smuckers has the worst sustainability initiative and reporting of all major coffee companies. The TCC1 notes, "[Smucker's] seems to lack a clear and concise CSR stategy, ... does not provide verifiable procurement figures of certified coffees, has no specific goals for a more sustainable coffee sector, and its future commitment is extremely vague." | |||
| Sara Lee/Douwe Egberts Brands include Senseo, Merrild, Kanis & Gunnink, Cafe Pilao, Cafitesse, Harris, Piazza d’Oro. | Global: 5.4% U.S.: 4.1% | 2008: 450,000 tons 2010: 450,000 tons1 | 2008: Some organic; amount unknown. 20,000 tons (4.4%) UTZ Certified (see note). 2010: Some organic; amount unknown. 40,000 tons UTZ Certified (9%)4. |
| Sara Lee is divesting itself of all North American coffee operations. Much has gone to Smuckers. As of March 2012 it will discontinue Senseo coffee pod business in the U.S. as well. The company is the largest buyer of UTZ Certified coffee. This certification deserves credit for its transparency requirements, and for what I hear is an evolution toward more environmental criteria, but right now it can't be considered an eco-standard. |
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| Starbucks | Global: 1.8% U.S.: 11.8% | 2008: 175,000 tons 2010: 122,000 tons | 2008: 4,500 tons organic (2.6%); 120,500 tons under their CAFE Practices (68.8%). I gave a combined total of 71.4%, but some may overlap. 2010: 4000 tons organic1 (3.3%) plus 103,000 tons (84%) under CAFE Practices. |
| The environmental standards of Starbucks CAFE Practices preferred buyer program are more detailed and stronger than many third-party certifications, including Fair Trade and UTZ Certified. See also my post on recent CAFE Practices assessment reports". The TCC report1 indicates Starbucks purchased 135,000 tons; I used the figure that came directly from the company website. The TCC1 notes, "Stabucks appears to be far and away the best in terms of sustainable coffee procurement [of the top ten buyers]..." |
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| Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Brands include Timothy's Coffee of the World, Tully's, Diedrich, Coffee People, Gloria Jean's, Van Houtte, and Newman's Own. | U.S.: 14.1% | 20085: 18,439 tons 20105: 22,282 tons | 20085: 4133 organic 20105: 5006 tons organic (22.5%). |
| Latest figures are for fiscal year 2009; GMCR fiscal years end in September. | |||
| Caribou Coffee | 2010: 9100 tons | 2010: 9100 tons Rainforest Alliance (100%) | |
| Caribou is the first major coffeehouse to source 100% Rainforest Alliance (or any eco-certified) coffee. See this post for details. | |||
As a point of reference, world coffee production in 2010 was over 8 million metric tons. Sixteen percent of that is produced under various sustainability initiatives (including those I didn’t put in the report, such as Fair Trade, 4C verified, and Nespresso AAA), but only 9% gets sold under one of these labels1.
I’ll update this table as data become available.
References:
1Tropical Commodity Coalition, Coffee Barometer 2012.
2Nestlé Nespresso Ecolaboration Progress Report, June 2011.
3Accelerating progress on the Nespresso AAA Sustainable Quality Program in Central America. March 2011.
4Strong, Supportive, Sustainable: 2010 Sustainability Report. Sara Lee Corp. — PDF.
5Brewing a Better World. Transformation. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Corporate Responsibility Report, FY ’09 – PDF.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Thank you for your interest in our TCC Coffee Barometers. You are correct in the fact that the Tropical Commodity Coalition has been closed down since last week. Though we have published our last report ‘Coffee Barometer 2012′ with the latest figures available. Please contact me to recieve this last report, so the above story can be replenished.