Coffee LENS: ofi trains 105,000 coffee farmers to tackle climate change and market shocks

14 Jul 2022 --- Green coffee origin exporter olam food ingredients (ofi) has surpassed the halfway mark on its target to supply 200,000 farmers with technical support and training to boost their resilience to severe weather changes and market volatility by 2025. The commitments are integral to the company’s Coffee LENS (Livelihoods, Education and Nature at Scale) initiative.

“In this time, coffee prices have increased from very low levels, but despite this, the inherent cyclical nature of the market and price volatility mean smallholders in producing countries need support to become more resilient in the face of price and climate shocks,” Juan Antonio Rivas, global head sustainable business development, ofi tells FoodIngredientsFirst.

The support includes training, technical assistance, fertilizer and seedlings and access to higher value markets. 

It has also led to productivity and income improvements for farmers under ofi’s managed sustainability programs, including 32% average yield increases for farmers in San Martín, Peru and certification premiums worth US$830,000 distributed to more than 14,000 farmers in Aceh and North Sumatra in Indonesia.

“During periods of high prices, it is typically the more commercial producers with larger farms that stand to benefit most. This is due to mechanization, access to finance and higher yielding varieties, as well as better know-how in these origins,” explains Rivas. 

“However, the great majority of farmers are smallholders who often lack the means to invest in more resilient varieties and other climate adaptation methods for the future. As the peaks and troughs of the coffee market become more frequent and extreme, there’s a growing inequality between smallholders and the ‘better off’ farmers in origins such as Brazil and Vietnam.” 

Coffee varietals under threatExtreme weather and market shocks have left premium coffee varietals in a vulnerable position. ofi aims to remedy the situation in its supply chain through tailored data analysis and technical training of smallholder farmers.
One of the critical areas that ofi’s coffee teams are focusing on to support smallholders is upskilling them to improve quality and access to specialty markets, where quality improvement along with yield enhancement can lead to significantly higher incomes. 

This includes training on post-harvest techniques and distributing processing equipment like drying beds, eco-pulpers and solar dryers. These activities are important to help preserve the wide range of flavor profiles and blends from the diversity of varietals, climates and terroirs spanning the coffee belt. 

By publishing the Coffee LENS impact report, ofi hopes to encourage more partners, industry, governments, and NGOs to join its programs, such as the Alliance for Sustainable Landscapes & Markets, to scale the impact. 

In the long term, the efforts should help implement a mechanism akin to a price stabilization fund to offer support and stability for marginalized coffee farmers on a global scale.

The report also shares other key milestones, including the introduction of a digital child labor monitoring and remediation system, planting 2 million trees to promote regenerative agriculture, rejuvenating soils across land equivalent to 11,000 football fields, and the ability to offer customers verified traceability for 100% of its directly sourced coffee. 

The data from ofi at farm level feeds into the sustainability insights platform AtSource, providing customers with the social and environmental footprint of their coffee purchases, which then informs continuous improvement programs.

Extreme weather impacts
Climate change is projected to halve the global area suitable for coffee production. ofi witnesses how more extreme weather patterns can alter the flowering and fruiting cycles in producing countries and increase pests and diseases, such as rust. 

“The droughts and frosts in southern Brazil that are partly behind the most recent price spikes point to the vulnerability of a value chain that relies too heavily on a few producing origins,” explains Rivas.

“When prices dip below the cost of production, smallholders need to be able to afford more resilient varieties and adaptation methods and draw on alternative income sources. Otherwise, they have little incentive or choice to continue farming. If certain origins can no longer support coffee production, this could affect consumer choice and the livelihoods of millions of smallholders.” 

“The granularity of the data and continuous improvement requirements of AtSource are translating into multiple benefits, from higher levels of third-party supplier engagement across coffee origins with the ofi Supplier Code and training to enabling companies to report on Scope 3 emissions as required by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol,” says Rivas.

Protecting onions and garlic from wildfireTailored treatment plans are underway to protect ofi and Knorr's onion and garlic fields.
In other efforts to protect crops against extreme weather and market fluctuations, ofi, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, the National Forest Foundation and Knorr, a Unilever brand, have partnered on a series of restoration projects within the Pine Flats watershed focusing on improving the health and resilience of forested watershed to improve conservation of water resources and reduce the potential impact of severe wildfire. 

Located close to ofi’s key US processing facilities, the Sierra National Forest and surrounding watersheds provide roughly 50% of the water to Californians, including that used by the company’s local onion, garlic and parsley growers. 

These initiatives directly address known problems with conifer encroachment on historically open meadows. They will also use a series of controlled burns to help maintain ideal vegetation conditions for adequate water drainage and carbon dioxide (CO2) absorption. 

The two flagship programs are expected to replenish over 660 million gallons of water and reduce over 80,000 metric tons of CO2 in California’s Central Valley to help regional growers. 

Dean Gould, forest supervisor at the Sierra National Forest, states: “The exacerbated impacts of climate change on the Pine Flats watershed have become clear over the past few years with larger and hotter wildfires leading to sedimentation increases in rivers, creeks and streams.”

ofi is also partnering with Knorr on three initiatives to bolster sustainable growing practices across its supplier farms. These include a project for improving soil health and biodiversity in ofi’s key onion and garlic fields with tailored treatment plans. 

The scheme ensures that green waste from several Californian municipalities is converted into quality compost. Another program aims to reduce water usage and costs for onion crops through drip irrigation. 

By Inga de Jong