Coffee firm Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE) has announced a partnership with the Louis Dreyfus Company, a global agriculture merchant, which will see the two firms team up to support coffee farmers in Indonesia.
The move, which firms part of JDE's corporate responsibility programme, will seek to train smallholder farmers that have not received any form of of agronomy training or certification, and improve the living conditions of their communities.
The three-year project will be based in Lampung province, on the island of Sumatra. With around 3,500 farmers and their families participating in the project, the scheme will benefit around 14,000 people overall.
Information Campaigns
As part of the process, Louis Dreyfus Company will analyse soil types and assist farmers with using fertilisers efficiency, as well as running information campaigns on the dangers of banned pesticides and improve productivity.
"There are various environmental and social issues in Indonesia's coffee production," said Do Ngoc Sy, sustainability manager Asia Pacific at Jacobs Douwe Egberts.
"That's why we engage with our direct suppliers, such as LDC, in an open exchange, to learn more about the key sustainability challenges, such as improper agrochemical use, deforestation, unsafe working conditions and climate change, and work together to address these."
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
