May 27-28, 1996
International Seminar on Coffee and the Environment
The Executive Director of the International Coffee Organization (ICO), Mr. Celsius
A. Lodder, today issued the following statement:
"At the closing Panel Session of the International Seminar on Coffee and the Environment held at the headquarters of the ICO in London yesterday a number of suggestions be made for international cooperation in the field of sustainable coffee production. They included:
- that consideration be given to the formation of an Environmental Advisory Committee on Coffee;
- that comparative studies be carried out on the costs and returns of organic coffee vis-a-vis other high quality coffee;
- that contacts be made with international bodies and global lending institutions with programmes for sustainable agriculture in order to develop projects in this area; - that the ICO should act as a think tank for the dissemination of information on sustainable coffee production;
- that a global study be conducted to document and review all existing regulations and standards concerning coffee and the environment;
- that international standards be established for jute and sisal bags used for transporting coffee to make them reusable or recyclable;
- that encouragement be given to a simplification and reduction in costs of organic coffee certification, perhaps by stimulating the formation of certifying bodies in countries of origin;
- that standards be established for water quality in coffee processing; and
- that the private sector should cooperate with governments on matters concerning the sustainable production of coffee.
Under the terms of Article 35 of the International Coffee Agreement 1994 Member countries undertake to give due consideration to the sustainable management of coffee resources and processing, bearing in mind the principles established at the UN Conference on Environment and Development. The two-day Seminar was organized by the ICO with this purpose in mind. Particpants included some 80 coffee experts from a wide range of consuming and producing countries. Earlier, participants heard accounts of differing environmental priorities contingent on different conditions in various countries. Mr. Denis Seudieu, on behalf of the government of Cote d'Ivoire, stated that in that country the biggest priority was to avoid the further destruction of the rain forest by slash and burn agriculture; hence the need to establish coffee farms on a more permanent basis with the use of appropriate inputs where needed. On the other hand Mr. Rolando Vsquez, of the Costa Rican Coffee Institute, gave a systematic account of a scheme initiated in 1992 to reduce contamination from coffee processing effluents, while Professor Peter May gave a wide overview of the environmental issues facing coffee in Brazil. Other presentations dealt with the benefits, in terms of retention of biodiversity and soil conservation, of coffee grown under shade and the perception of environmental concerns by the trade and consumers in coffee- importing countries.
A constant theme was the need to ensure that coffees produced under environmentally sound conditions, particularly with organic certification, should receive a price which permits such conditions to be observed. In this connection participants learned with particular interest from the representative of the German Coffee Association, Mr.Hans Petzold, that the market would indeed pay the necessary premiums provided that a high quality level was maintained. Another theme was that of 'fair' or 'ethical' trading in coffee. Here again it was pointed out that there exists a market segment prepared to pay a degree of premium for the assurance that certain social and economic standards were being respected in the production of coffee.
The Chairman of the Seminar was Mr. W.A. Bastiaanse, of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, and the Rapporteur was Mr. C.P.R. Dubois of the ICO. Speakers included representatives from the United Nations Environment Programme (Ms. Ivonne Higuero), UNCTAD (Mr. Mehmet Arda), the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (Mr. Robert Rice), and experts from number of coffee producing countries (as mentioned above) and consuming countries (Mr. Hans Petzold and Mr. Calle Akerstedt of the German and Swedish Coffee Associations respectively), including the President of the Organic Crop Improvement Association International, Mr. Tom Harding. The final Panel Session was moderated by Mr. Simeon Onchere, European representative of the Coffee Board of Kenya.
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