NESCAFÉ Partners Blend

The UK Launch of Nestlé’s First Fair Trade Certified Product

Organisation Name

Nestlé Headquarters

Problem

Nestlé’s long term commitment is to develop sustainable agricultural practices in order to help

alleviate hardship and poverty among small coffee farmers. It is also important for Nestlé to

assure continuous supply of good quality coffee beans. Increasingly, the company’s consumers

expect it to integrate this commitment to social responsibility into its brands and show how

farmers can be helped to have a better life.

Solution

• NESCAFÉ Partners Blend is a high quality coffee made from 100 percent Arabica beans
from two of the world’s renowned coffee bean growing countries, El Salvador and Ethiopia.

• The product is sourced according to internationally agreed upon criteria established by

the Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International and the product has been approved to

carry the FAIRTRADE Mark, which provides an independent assurance to consumers.

• The Partners’ Blend project helps farmers grow higher quality coffee, diversify their
crops, improve their communities and achieve a higher standard of living.

• It also focuses on environmental protection by improving the post-harvest treatment of

green coffee.

• With Partners’ Blend, Nestlé is applying its sustainable approach to particularly poor
producing communities in El Salvador and Ethiopia.

• In El Salvador, the project focuses on small farms of less than 10 hectares that face
particular socio-economic challenges.

• In El Salvador, Nestlé provides technical support, agricultural material and plants to help
the farmers cultivate a good quality coffee and diversify into several different activities,

including citrus fruit production, chicken breeding and tree planting for shade and timber.
Nestlé has involved all parts of the supply chain. In El Salvador, the company works with the

trading group ECOM and an NGO, Semi Empresariales de Meso America. In Ethiopia, Nestlé

works with Volcafe and Mullege in connection with the Jet Washing station project and have a

trading relationship with the Oromia Co-operative Union.

Constraints

Nestlé needed to engage directly with small-holder farmers in order to successfully deliver the

Partners’ Blend programme. These farmers are in particularly poor communities.

Benefits

• Nestlé is currently helping over 3,500 of the poorest coffee farmers in El Salvador and
Ethiopia.

• Agronomists have been introduced to help the producers better understand modern
farming practices to increase yield and quality and, therefore, income.

• In El Salvador, day-to-day life has improved with new houses provided for some workers
in the co-operatives and the opening of a clinic.

• Education of local children has also become a focus with an educational project involving
700 pupils now underway.

• In Ethiopia, Nestlé first concentrated efforts into the installation of facilities for clean
drinking water for the community and have drilled a borehole, built a covered reservoir and

provided four clean water points serving over 5,000 villagers.

• Installation of a wet milling process for the green coffee which has reduced water use by
96%. In addition, a water well was drilled especially for the new plant so that it is no longer

necessary to take water from the nearby river.

• Since the launch of Partners’ Blend in the UK in October, Sweden and Ireland have
followed up with their own announcements that they will be launching Fairtrade certified

coffee products.