Given its long-standing role in the country’s coffee industry, Nestlé, through its Nescafé Plan continuously drives initiatives to sustain a positive impact on the lives of Filipino coffee farmers.
“It is our ambition at Nestlé to continue growing the coffee sector towards eventual self-sufficiency in coffee, and better lives for coffee farmers and their families,” said Kais Marzouki, Chairman and CEO of Nestlé Philippines.
As the leading buyer of locally produced Robusta coffee beans, it operates coffee buying stations which are at their busiest these days, given that this time of year is coffee buying season in most parts of the country
Nestlé purchases over 50 percent of the country’s total annual Robusta production.
Expressing solidarity with the country’s coffee farmers, Nestlé Philippines SVP and Head of Corporate Affairs Atty. Ernesto S. Mascenon and the company’s Nescafé Plan Team recently held a celebratory program at the Nestlé coffee buying station in Maramag, Bukidnon. With local farmers represented, they were joined by Department of Agriculture (DA) Region 10 OIC Regional Technical Director Carlota Madriaga; officials of the DA’s High Value Crops, Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service, Agricultural Credit Policy Council, High Value Crops (Post Harvest), and High Value Crops Coffee; the Philippine Coconut Authority; and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
The buying season, the culmination of the coffee production cycle, has great significance for coffee farmers: it is when they are rewarded for their hard work.
In 2010, to strengthen the sustainability and advance the economic benefits of coffee farming, Nestlé accelerated a long – term global program called the NESCAFÉ Plan, a comprehensive initiative which promotes responsible farming, responsible production, and responsible consumption.
The NESCAFÉ Plan consists of four pillars:
• Technical assistance from Nestlé’s highly competent agricultural team – Nestlé agronomists, equipped with knowledge on the latest farming techniques and technologies, provide training in all aspects of coffee growing – from planning coffee farms to post – harvest.
Engaging in capacity building through technical training for farmers, Nestlé conducts Coffee Production Technology Training (CPTT) that covers basic coffee growing skills. Coffee farmers are taught coffee propagation, nursery and farm establishment, fertilization, care and maintenance, harvesting and post-harvest operations, quality control and marketing, coffee rejuvenation, and regeneration. The training also covers coffee farming sustainability following the NESCAFÉ Better Farming Practices (NBFP) and the 4C (Common Code for the Coffee Community).
The NBFP is a set of coffee farm practices designed to increase productivity while assisting farmers to meet basic social and environmental criteria, as defined by the 4C and Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) standards.
• Superior quality planting materials derived from high quality Robusta selections – Nestlé produces and sells at cost quality Robusta plantlets to farmers, private investors, and the government. The distributed plantlets consist of better yielding varieties, with a potential yield of 2.5 MT per hectare compared to previous plantlets with a yield of only 1.5 MT kilos;
• Ready market – In order to meet demand caused by continuously increasing local coffee consumption, Nestlé buys coffee beans directly from farmers, cooperatives or consolidators at world market prices provided the beans meet Nestlé quality standards (moisture, triage, and cup taste).
The NESCAFÉ Plan provides more immediate economic advantages to farmers through its Farmer Connect program, a direct buying system that encourages small farmers and small-scale intermediaries to sell their produce directly to Nestlé, thus providing them with a ready market for their produce.
At the core of the Farmer Connect model are the Nestlé Satellite Buying Stations, which are strategically situated around the country near key coffee – growing areas to encourage small farmers and intermediaries to sell their produce directly to Nestlé. They are guaranteed a buying price aligned with global market prices. Nestlé observes price transparency and farmers can obtain information about price through text messaging, or those who have access to the Internet can check global pricing. The system also enables farmers to be paid within eight banking hours from the sale of their produce to Nestlé.
• Strong stakeholder partnerships – the NESCAFÉ Plan carries out its mission to help farmers through multi-stakeholder engagement. The Philippine Government, NGOs, LGUs, academe, farmers, and farmers’ groups all collaborate to support the Philippine coffee industry, with the NESCAFÉ Plan as one of the more successful stakeholder engagement models.
The Philippine Coffee Roadmap, with the indispensable support of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), envisions a more robust and continuously growing coffee industry benefitting Filipino coffee farmers. One specific area of partnership between the DA and Nestlé consists of joint efforts to propagate high-yielding coffee plantlets.
At this juncture, milestones of the NESCAFÉ Plan include:
• The distribution of Robusta plantlets consisting of better yielding varieties that are more adaptable to local conditions;
• Training an average of 9,200 farmers every year;
• Promoting the viability of coffee farming, resulting in the heightened importance of coffee in the agricultural sector and among agri-businessmen investing in coffee;
• Helping coffee communities to establish linkages for government support, obtain better access to seedlings and the market, source funding from financial institutions for farming inputs, gain technical assistance, and increase income via the promotion of intercropping with cash crops;
• Opening and expanding technology dissemination and seedling production to provide better access to the latest technical know-how on coffee and high quality planting materials.
By means of the NESCAFÉ Plan, Nestlé aims to make coffee farming a more profitable and sustainable livelihood for many coffee-dependent communities. The NESCAFÉ Plan seeks to create for the next crop of farmers and the next coffee farming generation viable incomes that will help maintain coffee farming as a thriving industry, creating and sustaining jobs in rural areas.
According to Marzouki, “Through the NESCAFÉ Plan, we at Nestlé are committed to improve the lives of our Filipino coffee farmers by giving them the support they need, from world-class training, superior quality plantlets, to procurement of their produce at world market prices come harvest time.”
5 comments
I wanted to plan a coffee tree, but I don’t have enough capital to start. Can you help me to start.?
How to be a coffee farmer? In partnership with nestle?
How to partner with Nestle?
Im enterested to plant coffee in partnership with nestle, the place of my land in Surigao del Sur, at present it was planted by Palcata tree due to harvest this June 2020. Plan to change it with coffee is it possible to grow coffee in that area?
how can I start? what to do to be partner with Nestle?