by Roberto Machel
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Nespresso should invest more in Brazil in 2022, potentially expanding the offer of products, with a positive impact on the country’s production chain, seen by the Nestlé company as a reference for the world in terms of quality and sustainability.
Next year, the leading coffee company in the capsule segment is committed to globally zeroing carbon emissions in production activities, with the planting of trees and the purchase of credits. And he assesses that Brazil, where he buys most of the coffee, plays an important role in the process.
The challenges will be formidable considering that crops in the world’s largest producer and exporter have been hit hard by drought in recent years, in addition to frosts in the winter of 2021.
But the company sees the producers it works with, who receive awards for quality and sustainability, more resilient in achieving the main goals.
“Brazil will gain a lot of space next year, I believe this is due to leadership in sustainability, to Brazilian leadership in projects, we have advanced our project agenda a lot and have become a benchmark,” said Guilherme Amado, leader of the Nespresso AAA Program of Sustainable Quality in Brazil and Hawaii.
“We have success stories that have been replicated in other countries, it’s a coffee Brazil that gives a taste, and because of that, Nespresso decided to invest more in new products, 2022 will be the year of Brazil”, he highlighted.
In an interview, he stated that the news for 2022 will involve products, but also projects for farms and the people involved in the processes. However, he said he could not give details.
The executive also said that Nespresso, which completes 15 years of activity in Brazil in 2021, intends to increase the payment of premiums to producers in 2022, which totaled 10 million dollars this year.
“Over the last three years, we have maintained the same level of premiums, and there are two years of pandemic, which were atypical. But we imagine that next year it will be bigger. Why? Because something new comes from Brazil…”
The prize is fixed in dollars for the value of the bag prepared, and often ends up being reverted to environmentally sustainable activities.
“We have two awards, we pay for those who are part of the AAA (sustainable quality) program and for farms that have advanced in the sustainability agenda, which manage to obtain an external certificate from the Rainforest Alliance”, said the executive.
All 1,200 Brazilian farms that supply coffee to the company and are part of the Nespresso AAA Sustainable Quality Program are covered by the initiative.
According to him, if you are a AAA coffee grower, you receive a prize per bag ranging from 13 to 21 dollars. And if the producer is still Rainforest Alliance certified, he receives an additional 6.6 dollars per bag, revealed the leader of the program in Brazil and Hawaii.
The premium values do not take into account the investments the company makes in its technical assistance team, which is essential for farmers to achieve their goals. In this segment, investments total 700 thousand dollars. There is also a third line of contributions, which are projects.
FROM NORTH TO SOUTH
With 15 years of experience in the coffee world, Amado highlighted that Brazil has quality coffees with a variety of characteristics and aromas that fit into the plans of the company, which currently operates in Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo and São Paulo.
“We have an incomparable variety of coffees. From Paraná to Ceará, from Espírito Santo to Rondônia, within this area there are excellent coffees…”, he added.
Brazil, which is among the ten biggest sales markets of Nespresso, is already the biggest supplier of coffee for the Nestlé company, but the sector in the country will not pass unscathed to the bad weather.
“It’s been a difficult year, in my 15 years of coffee I’ve never seen the situation we’re going through, it’s a special time, where there are challenges and opportunities,” he commented, referring to the impacts of drought and frost, which in general should reduce the productive potential in 2022.
But “we have a business model that brings us security, the growers we work with have more tools to manage this entire crisis and get out with better results, but it is a moment of attention and caution for all of us.”
Nespresso and its partners, said the executive, want to broaden the focus on the so-called regenerative agriculture, in which there are actions such as reducing the use of nitrogen fertilizers, which helps to reduce emissions.
“The next horizon to be unveiled is called soil, which has a natural aptitude for carbon sequestration and storage… use of organic fertilizer or synthetic fertilizers that have protection against volatilization”, he pointed out, noting that the objective is to carry out more cover crops of soil, such as brachiaria, between the rows of the coffee plantations, which also improves the water storage capacity.
In addition to encouraging more sustainable management within the crop, Nespresso works with coffee growers to reintroduce trees into their properties, with programs that recorded the planting of thousands of native species.
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