Coffee
Coffee is a leading beverage worldwide, and represents one of the most traded commodities. Demand is rising for arabica and robusta beans, with market opportunities in emerging economies, as coffee consumption grows, and developed countries, with specialty coffee and product innovations gaining in popularity.
We are one of the leading global coffee merchants, providing a full range of coffee types and grades from around the world.
We store and process coffee beans according to our customers’ quality requirements, before selling largely to multinational roasters in Europe, the US and Asia.
We manage every stage, from sourcing, warehousing and quality control, to shipment, storage, processing, financing and marketing.
Achieving rapid growth
Our sourcing operations are now in Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and Vietnam, providing direct access to most of the world’s coffee production.
“Our coffee processing and storage facility in Alfenas, Brazil, is in the most important coffee growing region in the world, with connections to major transportation links and commercial opportunities. The facility is fully automated for sorting and blending beans.”
Improving the sustainability impact of coffee
As one of the largest coffee merchants in the world, our business depends on a secure supply of coffee beans for the long term.
We are committed to investing in coffee producers and to bring social, economic and environmental benefits to their communities. We have conducted various projects, including through a partnership with a coffee manufacturer to address some of the main sustainability challenges of coffee, and by collaborating with coffee farmers in the Cerrado, as well as Colombia, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Beyond this, the coffee sector stands to build resilience and promote decent work by focusing on sustainable sourcing programmes and strengthening supply chain transparency and due diligence. Lowering emissions linked to coffee production also helps to ensure regulatory compliance and meet consumer expectations.
To improve the impact of coffee, we have established our own Coffee Responsible Origin Programme in Brazil, engaging with some 268 farms. Beyond this, we continue to support independent certification schemes in countries including Vietnam and Colombia. Some 45% of our coffee exports are certified sustainable.
See Our certifications for information on how we leverage third party certification schemes to promote sustainable sourcing.
