Sucafina, IMPACT & Fazenda Nunes
If you're like us here at Chipp, you're a coffee lover who also cares about sustainability. Which is why we're here today to talk about Sucafina's IMPACT programme. This innovative initiative is changing the game when it comes to sustainable and traceable coffee that is actively doing good for the planet. But why should you, the bean drinker, care about such a thing? Well let me tell you....
Who is Sucafina?
Sucafina started all the way back in 1905 with one simple goal in mind, to create opportunities that improve lives. Founded in Jaffa, Palestine, originally exporting oranges and importing food products, Sucafina sold their products all over the Middle East and gradually moved in to Europe. Today Sucafina focusses solely on coffee but it remains a family company with the main vision of being the leading sustainable, Farm to Roaster coffee company in the world.
What is Sucafina's IMPACT programme?
Sucafina's IMPACT programme is a comprehensive approach to coffee sustainability that focuses on improving the livelihoods of coffee farmers, protecting the environment, and ensuring the long-term viability of the coffee industry. The IMPACT programme is built on a strong foundation of what they call 'Critical Indicators' which create the solid foundation for everything else to be built upon. These include, ensuring children have the right to childhood and education, farmers' human rights are being upheld to the international standard and they enjoy their work, biodiversity is being maintained consistently as to not degrade the surrounding environment and endangered or native flora and fauna are preserved and finally, pest and weed management is maintained to a universal standard ensuring the local wildlife is maintained, bees aren't being killed and so on.
In addition to these foundational principles, Sucafina are regularly working with their partners to improve their farming practices and general quality of life through securing land rights for farmers, promoting health and wellbeing and providing all the necessary tools to continue to work in the safest and most hygienic environment possible, creating equal opportunities for all demographics and ensuring people aren't discriminated against, farmers are provided with training and modern agricultural practices and given the means to manage their waste products so they can be reused or recycled to their maximum potential.
What are the benefits of the IMPACT programme?
By participating in Sucafina's IMPACT programme, coffee farmers are able to increase their incomes, improve their living conditions, and protect the environment for future generations.
Recently, a selection of IMPACT Ambassadors travelled to Rwanda and Kenya to see how the farms they work with are implementing Sucafina's sustainability interventions first hand, meeting the farmers and seeing measurable positive results from their hard work.
It was evident from the visit that, compared to neighbouring farms who aren't IMPACT verified, IMPACT farmers had better access to advanced methods of cultivation and better quality genetic materials which directly contributed to higher yields. They've also noted there had been more opportunities to train and diversify which in turn has allowed farmers to expand their farms, grow more coffee but also expand their crops for more revenue steams and provide stability for everyone who works on the farms.
Chipp, Sucafina and You!
We are lucky enough to have an excellent relationship with Sucafina and feature their incredible coffee across a range of Chipp products but one in particular we're especially proud of is our Fazenda - Nunes and our long term partnership with the Nunes Farm which is of course, IMPACT verified.
The IMPACT program ensures that coffee is produced in accordance with specific social and environmental standards. The Nunes family got their IMPACT verification as a way to confirm that their coffee is produced in socially and environmentally friendly ways and to reach new markets for sustainable coffees.
Our Roasters Choice for August 2024 also comes from an IMPACT verified farm in Colombia, the magical Finca El Embrujo. If you'd like to learn more about the wizardry coming out of there be sure to check out our August Roasters Choice blog to learn more!
So the next time you reach for a brew you can rest easy knowing we've done everything we can to ensure the beans in your cup have helped and contributed to making long term measurable change for the better for everyone involved; that's the Chipp way.