World Bank Partner to Help East African Coffee Farmers
Nespresso has today announced a joint investment of $6 million with the World Bank’s IFC (International Finance Corporation) in a landmark collaboration project to support coffee farmers in East Africa to combat the effects of climate change.
The investment is the latest made through the Nespresso Sustainability Innovation Fund, a vehicle to facilitate investment by Nespresso in innovative sustainability initiatives that go beyond its usual business operations. The investment includes a $3 million grant from the Bank’s BioCarbon Fund Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes - its first ever private sector collaboration to finance an environmental initiative by a business.
This project, part of Nespresso’s AAA Sustainable Quality Program, will work with more than 40,000 smallholder coffee farmers in several regions of Ethiopia and Kenya to provide technical and financial support to increase sustainable practices and plant trees on their land. Reforestation of this kind helps to make farms more resilient to climate change. The farmers will also receive training in agricultural best practices to help them improve their productivity and the quality of their coffee harvests – enabling them to earn more money.
Neil Palmer/CIAT