Food & Climate
Hotter and drier climates are creating challenges in many coffee production regions, as changing temperatures push coffee producers further up the mountains, where there is less land for cultivation, meaning fewer crops and yields.
Jessica Padula, Vice President of Marketing and Head of Sustainability for Nespresso, said: “we’re at threat of not being able to grow coffee. There’s no other way to grow it today”, according to a report seen by “Food & Climate” platform.
Through Nespresso’s AAA Program, agronomists are working with producers to build a coffee industry that builds healthy soils while supporting farming communities.
Launched more than a decade ago with the help of the Rainforest Alliance, the AAA Program engages agronomists who work “hand in hand” with farmers in coffee producing regions around the world, told “Food Tank“.
These agronomists strive to gain farmers’ trust, offering training and resources to help producers implement practices to improve yields while reducing soil erosion. In turn, the farmers teach them about the wildlife specific their region or the cover crops that are most effective.
This support is particularly important as changing weather patterns affect coffee production.
Coffee production and trade
Coffee is the world’s second most traded good. There is one thing that all countries which trade coffee have in common, and that is that they are all situated in what is called The Tropics. It can sometimes be difficult to determine exactly where your coffee comes from when you take your first sip or purchase a blend from the shops. But your coffee goes on quite a journey before it gets to your cup, with beans that come from South America, Asia and Africa, according to “Nescafe”.
The top 10 coffee growers around the world are: Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, Indonesia, Honduras, Ethiopia, Peru, India, Guatemala, and Uganda.
Brazil, which Situated in South America, is the top producer of coffee. They produce 2,68 million metric tons of coffee on average every year. Brazil has also held onto its first-place position as the world’s largest coffee producer for over 150 years.
Brazil’s climate had been perfect for growing Robusta and Arabica coffee beans, as it offered the right amount of rainfall and sunlight, combined with its low elevation and even year-round temperatures, this offers the perfect climate for coffee production.
Brazil’s farmers
Brazil’s farmers have been struggling for 3 years due to climate change.
In 2023, Coffee producers located thousands of kilometres away of Brazil’s Amazon region, which was reached by wildfires were living their own private hell. Farms like Felipe Barretto Croce’s in Mococa, in the state of São Paulo, have seen fires increase in recent years, jeopardising the production of what is the world’s largest coffee exporter.
“We see that August and September are critical months at the end of the dry season, evapotranspiration, water deficit in the soil. It starts to get critical and we see a lot of fires, a lot of wildfires in the region,” explains Croce.
Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza (FAF), owned by Felipe’s family, is located in the countryside of São Paulo, in the middle of two biomes – the Cerrado and the Atlantic Forest – where 10 hectares of organic arabica coffee are becoming increasingly vulnerable to environmental changes, largely accentuated by the loss of vegetation in the Amazon.
“In recent years we’ve had days with more extreme weather, more intense cold and more intense heat. We’re seeing a rain deficit in general. This is probably due to a lot of deforestation around us, in the Cerrado and the Amazon,” Croce said, according to “Dialogue Earth”.
Also, Jamaican coffee — which can trace its roots back to the early 1700s — is made from the Arabica Typica variety, which yields beans that are more delicate and flavorful than the Robusta beans raised in other countries, has experienced a number of major setbacks in recent decades. Most plantations were devastated in a huge hurricane that hit the Blue Mountains in 1988 and crippled production. The Japanese government provided grants and assistance to help the industry get back on its feet, only for another hurricane in 2004 to cause further damage