Highlights
Pre-financing fertilizers in Honduras
Starting in 2008, the project "Professionalizing the coffee supply chain in Honduras", jointly supported by SOGIMEX S.A. (ECOM) and DE Foundation has pre-financed fertilizers to 453 small coffee producers. An average increase of 30% in productivity was observed right after the first year. With time, productivity can be doubled or tripled by applying good agricultural practices and the right fertilizers.
Solar dryer - a way forward for better quality and income of producers
In the Sustainable Coffee Project in Colombia, supporting project farmers to build solar dryers is an important activity that has brought a highly visible impact.
"It's not easy to get their coffee!"
After 8.5 years of involvement and 3 project phases (initialisation, expansion and business development), our project in Peru will come to an end in September 2011. From a humble start in 2003 with a handful of Farmer Field Schools (FFS), the project has helped to build a fully-fledged cooperative that operates independently in the upper segments of the international coffee market. In this article we will look at the journey of the producers and the project team.
Coffee World Radio from Cameroon
As part of its coffee promotion work, the Cameroon project regularly broadcasts a show called "Coffee World" on several local radio stations. The show usually involves a short update on the coffee market, explanations on technical activities such as pruning and processing, interviews with national and international coffee experts and so on.
Colombian video
During the last project steering group meeting, a film crew accompanied the project team of the FNC and the donor representatives (Dutch government and DE Foundation) and came up with a nice 15 minute impression of the project, the farmers involved and the roles of the various partners.
Mushrooming business in Cameroon
Inspired by both Ken Calvert of Renertech and the ZERI Foundation (winner of the 2009 SCAA Sustainability Awards), the DE Foundation project in Cameroon decided to add an activity on the promotion of mushroom cultivation on coffee pulp. Mushrooms can be a valuable dietary addition in a region such as the North West of Cameroon where food is rich in carbohydrates but often poor in protein. Besides dietary advantages, mushrooms can also contribute to diversification of income. Before kicking off, a small research grant was made available to look into the size, location and structure of the Cameroonian mushroom market as well as peoples' perception of mushrooms as foodstuff. Afterall, growing mushrooms only to find out after the first harvest is available that people do not like to eat them is a waste of time and money. It turned out we did not have to worry, uptake of this initiative grew as quickly as the mushrooms themself, so to speak. Curious...
The first Vietnamese coffee cooperative new style
In 2010, DE Foundation joined efforts in Vietnam with the Rabobank Foundation and what was then called the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (currently named Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation) to implement a challenging project with a strong focus on organisational development for coffee farmers. This project is a follow up of the "Roll Out" project, where it was concluded that lack of farmer organisation is one of the major obstacles to making the Vietnamese coffee sector more sustainable. One of the intermediate outcomes is the establishment of the first Vietnamese coffee cooperative "new style".
The Cafitesse winners' visit to Vietnam
During the Cafitesse Awards ceremony of Sara Lee in October 2010 a group of 13 people won a trip to a coffee origin. Aside from being awarded for their achievements over the past year, the winners also were expected to learn about the work of the DE Foundation and how SaraLee's choice for increasing volumes of sustainable coffees are affecting coffee producers. The trip took place, from 18/2/2011 to 22/2/2011, in Vietnam - an important supplier of Sara Lee where coffee is one of the key export commodities that creates high export turnover (1.7 to 1.8 billion USD annually) and brings income for millions of people.
Reference to the DE Foundation projects in Vietnam
The Double Dutch edition of Feb 2010, a magazine of the Dutch Business Association Vietnam (DBAV) refers to the partnership between the Douwe Egberts Foundation, the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and the Rabobank Foundation for the project to improve quality of coffee in Gia Lai, Dak lak and Lam Dong. You can find this article on page 8 of the magazine Double Dutch
Impression of Uganda/Luwero – feedback field trip Sara Lee employees
Sara Lee organized an international sales competition. Part of the ‘’Cafitesse Academy Award’’ was a field visit to Uganda. The winner, Paul Linssen, accompanied by Hotske Wesselius (Marketing Sara Lee Out of Home) and other participants (from various countries and areas of the business) were very positive about their field visit. One of the lessons learned is the complexity of addressing sustainability with small producers and how to create volume. ‘’Certification takes a lot of time and efforts and the costs for implementation are high. To help those producers, a local structure needs to be in place. The DE Foundation had a positive impact in Uganda. One of the participants, visited the same project 3 years ago and now saw a huge improvement. This experience drives pride internally.’’ said Paul Linssen.Projects
To further sustainability of mainstream coffee & tea, DE Foundation executes projects all around the globe, working in particular with small-scale producers.
About DE Foundation
The DE Foundation was established by Sara Lee in 2002 as an independent foundation.The Board comprises of 5 members, all of whom have a passion for sustainability.