4c Fact and news

4C – FACTS AND NEWS A quarterly update on 4C Activities | Edition 6 January 2010

The 4C Association holdS its 6th Council Meeting in Da Lat, Vietnam 4C Association marks major achievements in commercial reporting results, in membership growth and with new Strategic Plan 2015.

the Delegates that much more has to come to fulfill the 4C Association’s goal to be a successful “mainstream” sustainability Code.

The 6th Council of the 4C Association was held in Da Lat on Dec 2-3, giving credit to the importance of the Vietnamese coffee sector and the growing 4C Membership in Vietnam. The main point of interest during this Council meeting was the 2nd Commercial Reporting of the 4C Membership.

The accumulated data revealed a major success: The purchased volumes increased from 194.000 bags to 492.456 bags of 4C Compliant Coffee in the second operational year of the Association, which makes a rise of more than150%. At the same time it was common understanding among A major achievement of the 6th Council Meeting was the approval of the Strategic Plan 2015

Therefore it was of special importance that Melanie Rutten-Sülz, Executive Director of the 4C Association, could announce a further increase in demand of at least 50% for the present coffee year 2009/2010 (for details: please see 4C Press Release, December 2009 ). This is excellent news to the producing members of the Association who nearly doubled their production potential from 4.6 million to 9.5 million bags in the last coffee year.

Mr. Kevin Billing, moderator, welcomed Council Meeting participants to two days of lively discussion and interaction

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A key achievement was the approval of the Strategic Plan 2015 and the respective priority activities for 2010. The Council and Membership had been working intensively in several working group meetings since February 2009 to elaborate this key document that will guide the activities of the Association in the next years.

Additionally, the Council was informed about other major achievements of the Association: Preliminary findings of the first impact moni-

Prof. Bernardo van Raij, Vice-Chairman of the 4C Technical Committee, presented the results of the indicator revision process of the Technical Committee

toring undertaken by the Association reveal, that the 4C Code of Conduct shows positive effects on the ground. The membership growth continued (from 99 in 2008 to 126 in 2009). The Council also voted to take the fast track to achieve full ISEAL membership and agreed on a slightly increased budget for 2010. Finally the membership fee structure was revised to attract new members among suppliers, banks, research institutions and consultancies.

Participants of the 6th Council Meeting in Da Lat that marked the extension of 4C Activities in Vietnam

First 4C Regional Workshop on Sustainable Coffee Development, Da Lat The 4C Association held its first regional workshop on Sustainable Coffee Development in cooperation with the Vietnamese Department of Crop Production, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) on Dec 4, 2009 in Da Lat, Vietnam.

80 national and international representatives were present at the first 4C Regional Workshop on Sustainable Coffee Development, December 4, 2009

4C ASSOCIATION | Newsletter | January 2010

80 national and international representatives, among them Vietnamese Government officials from the central and provincial levels, the Executive Board and Council of the 4C Association, Vietnamese coffee companies, research institutions and support organizations were present at the workshop. The participants exchanged learnings, discussed and elaborated practical recommendations for collaboration towards the development of a sustainable coffee sector in Vietnam.

The opening of the fourth 4C Regional Office was announced and Mr. Do Ngoc Sy introduced as Technical Coordinator for Vietnam. The news was applauded as a next step towards intensified support and interaction amongst 4C Members and partners in Asia. After two

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years of close cooperation with MARD, the 4C Association and MARD will have new opportunities to work together in aspects such as training and capacity building in sustainable agricultural practices, food safety, quality

improvement, traceability and the organizational development of farmer groups. Mr. Do Ngoc Sy was thus invited to represent the 4C Association at the Vietnamese Coffee Task Force under MARD in order to intensify the collaboration between the two partners.

MARD and Vicofa presented details on the ‘Programme proposal on coffee sector development towards sustainable production and trade in Vietnam until 2020’ at the workshop.

“MARD highly appreciates 4C Association’s vision as it is in line with the sustainable development concept of the Vietnamese Government and Assembly,” said the Department for Crop Production, MARD.

4C Members and Secretariat representatives witnessed important production processes on a field trip to the Thai Hoa Company in Da Lat, December 5, 2009

Documents and presentations are available on request via the 4C Secretariat.

Online Marketplace Key to Bridging Sustainable Financing Gap The Finance Alliance for Sustainable Trade (FAST), with the F INANCE A LLIANCE support of Oxfam Novib and the SUSTAINABLE TRADE Citi Foundation, has launched an online Financial Marketplace to improve access to finance for sustainable small and medium enterprises (SMEs) around the world.

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FAST’s online Financial Marketplace is now publically available in English, French, and Spanish through the FAST website.

The Financial Marketplace is a web-based access point, which consolidates all the financial services offered by FAST-partnered institutions in an easy to read and user-friendly format. This innovative tool enables sustainable producers and other SMEs to quickly gain access to an extensive list of socially oriented lenders, com-

4C ASSOCIATION | Newsletter | January 2010

pare product offerings and financing options, and connect with the lenders that best suit their business needs.

In addition to providing sustainable trade borrowers with the tools needed to make educated financing decisions, the Financial Marketplace will also benefit socially oriented lenders. Not only will it allow lenders to extend their financial reach to sustainable producers globally; data made available through the Financial Marketplace will give them insight on the state of the whole sustainable SME financing sector.

The Online Marketplace is available immediately by creating a free FAST account. Account instructions are available on the FAST website.

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GENDER AND CERTIFIED COFFEE CHAINS Among the focal points of the new Strategic Plan 2015 of the 4C Association, the question of gender and women empowerment is to play a very important role. Sustainable development in the coffee sector should go deeper to address what kind of role women play along the coffee value chain and how they are rewarded for their efforts.

In November 2009 Oxfam-Novib, Hivos, Solidaridad and the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) convened a workshop in Costa Rica on gender and certified/verified coffee chains. The aim of the workshop was to share lessons learnt, document emerging practices, identify challenges and develop action points for different actors including standard setting organisations and producer organizations. Ten cases from Africa and Latin America were the basis for discussion during the workshop.

Ms. Leda Talavera, Pueblos en Acción Comunitaria (PAC), presenting at the Gender and Certified Coffee Chains Workshop, November 2009, Costa Rica

Coffee production tends to be perceived as men’s work, however, the cases presented clearly demonstrated that women are active participants. For example, in Guatemala about 12% of women of the total of coffee producers and workers plant coffee seedlings and 3% participate in plant maintenance while 45% engage in harvesting. Nonetheless, women’s contributions are not equally recog-

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nized or equally valued financially. A Kenyan case illustrated that while women contribute significantly to coffee production, representation within the cooperative is negligible.

Gender roles in coffee production and processing differ world-wide, but poor recognition of women’s work is shared and the lack of representation and participation in decisionmaking is striking.

Certification/verification programs have had both direct and indirect impacts on female representation in producer cooperatives and on improving recognition and value of women’s work. For example through gender policies, female membership in cooperatives has significantly increased. Also several initiatives improved female access to resources. A Nicaraguan cooperative increased female membership from 6.3% in 2007 to 15% in 2009 through the implementation of a gender policy. Another approach is that of Café de Mujer, a gender standard developed by Mayacert S.A. that uses a women-only label to differentiate its product. Compliance ensures that women have access to (own) land and sell their own coffee.

Women should be paid according to the work they contribute, should be represented in cooperatives and should be given the opportunities to become entrepreneurs themselves.

Organizations can help to strengthen the positive impact of certification and monitoring, and in the case of the 4C Association, of verification, on the position of women through integrating gender indicators into existing standards and to develop new policies to monitor and achieve gender-equality objectives along the coffee supply chain within the guidelines of local legislation.

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NEWS FROM THE ORIGIN New 4C Regional Office opened in Vietnam The 4C Association is proud to be extending its activities in Vietnam with the opening of its fourth regional office in Vietnam. The news was officially announced during a major workshop on Sustainable Coffee Development on December 4 in Da Lat, Vietnam.

Mr. Do Ngoc Sy was introduced as the new Technical Coordinator of the 4C Office in Buon Ma Thuot City, Dak Lak province. Before he joined the 4C Association, Do Ngoc Sy worked for the GTZ Rural Development Project in Dak Lak Mr. Do Ngoc Sy, Technical Coordinator of the newly opened Province as a National Training 4C Office in Vietnam Coordinator / Assistant Team Leader from 2003 - 2009. His motivation to work in the field of sustainability comes from his conviction that it is indispensable to steer agricultural production toward sustainable production, especially in the coffee sector.

In his new role as 4C Technical Coordinator, Do Ngoc Sy is looking forward to close cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and with relevant coffee stakeholders in Vietnam: “I am glad to be a part of increasing the presence of the 4C Association in Vietnam and share its vision of a more sustainable and transparent worldwide coffee sector”. Asked how he likes to have his own coffee, Mr. Do Ngoc Sy finishes by saying, “a cup of coffee with milk every morning.”

News from 4C Office Central America The first 4C Verifier Refresher Workshop for Spanish speaking verifier companies in the region took place in Managua, Nicaragua, from November 17 – 20, 2009. It was a 4-day workshop that included a field exercise, where the participants could put into practice the knowledge from the first two days of the workshop, finalizing with a day of presentation of results and recommendations for the 4C Unit visited as well as final discussions with the workshop participants.

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The workshop participants appreciated very much the practical field exercise which was an improvement in the verifier workshop programme of the 4C Association. The exercise succeeded in bringing different verifier companies to work together in the field which the workshop participants had never experienced before.

This success was due to the feedback of participants of previous workshops and of course due to the active, open and cooperative participation of the participants of this workshop.

The next 4C refresher verifier workshop will take place in Brazil after the carnival season. Concrete dates will be updated and announced on the 4C Website .

News from 4C Office Brazil The first meeting of the producers’ chamber of Brazilian Members of the 4C Association took place on September 2, 2009. The meeting took place in Franca-SP and was hosted by Cocapec .

The aim of the meeting was to bring representatives of the 4C Producer Chamber in Brazil together and also to intensify the exchange of information and ascertain needs met in the field during the application of the 4C Code of Conduct, especially for Participants of a 4C Training-of-trainers workshop small-holder farmers. in Campinas, Brazil, October 27 – 29, 2009 At the meeting, experiences from efforts to develop a more sustainable coffee sector were exchanged by the different 4C Unit representatives. Among the participants were Cooxupé, Cooparaíso, Cocatrel, Acenpp, Expocaccer and the Instituto Agronômico IAC, which was represented by Prof. Bernardo Van Raij.

Producer representatives decided at the meeting to create a tool to standardize the internal monitoring system of 4C Units. They discussed the possibilities of the adaptation of regional indicators of the 4C Code of Conduct and also announced the creation of the first 4C Regional Sustainability Forum with the participation of all 4C Chambers which is scheduled for early 2010.

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Statement of a 4C Founding Member Mr. Doan Trieu Nahn is the Vice Chairman of and Senior Advisor to the Vietnamese Coffee and Cocoa Association (VICOFA). VICOFA is an Associate 4C Member and has been involved in the 4C Association since the project phase of the Association in 2003. “The 4C Association has remarkably developed across the continents in the short time since it was founded. In Vietnam alone, there are 12 registered and verified 4C Units

with the production potential of 1.4 million bags of 4C Compliant Coffee,” notes Doan Trieu Nahn.

“The Vietnamese coffee sector, on its way to sustainability, has been enriched by the new ideas of the 4C Association. As a founding member, VICOFA strongly believes in the sustainable development of the coffee sector on the basis of the 4C Code of Conduct to move away from coffee certified and consumed in niche markets and towards sustainability in the mainstream coffee sector .”

NEWS from 4c Members

Busaanyi Farm attends the Mpigi District Coffee Stakeholders’ Platform in Uganda

Mr. Badru Kiryowa of Busaanyi Farm received the 4C License from Ms. Annette Pensel, 4C Director Support Services, in June 2008

The Mpigi District Coffee Stakeholders‘ Platform, a district coffee show, was held in Uganda on November 6, 2009.

The 4C Association was represented by Busaanyi Farm, a 4C Member from the Producer Chamber.

Busaanyi Farm had a booth and also holds the chairmanship to the steering committee of the district platform. There was a clear emphasis on the dissemination of information related to the 4C Association. Providing information in the local language of Luganda was a priority.

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The Mpigi District Coffee Show is a platform which brings all coffee stakeholders in the district together. It is affiliated to the National Coffee Stakeholders Platform of Uganda. The Platform has got a steering committee which is coordinating a coffee production campaign in Mpigi district, with the target to produce a 40% share of Uganda‘s coffee exports by 2015.

“The day‘s theme was ‘Unlocking the Wealth in your Coffee’”, explains Mr. Badru Kiryowa of Busaanyi Farm, “so farmers are by all means ready to ‘unlock that wealth through improved farming practices as well. We look forward to welcoming new 4C Units through this coffee campaign process.”

Next steps in the platform’s work plan include a broad range of activities like: going down to the grassroots in sub-counties in order to increase awareness of agricultural inputs as well as their use and benefits the demonstration of good agricultural practices for the coffee value chain disseminating coffee information on production, value addition, marketing and consumption bringing the youth and women on board and getting farmers organized in adopting a common goal in the coffee value chain

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New Members …

The 4C Association warmly welcomes since NOVEMBER 2009: From the Trade and Industry Chamber: Julius Meinl Industrieholding GmbH, a final buyer and important coffee roaster from Austria

From the Producers Chamber Bukonzo Joint Cooperative Microfinance Society Ltd., a cooperative from Uganda.

New Members Portrait Bukonzo Joint Cooperative Microfinance Society Ltd. Bukonzo Joint Cooperative Micro Finance Society Ltd. (Bukonzo Joint Cooperative) , founded in 1999, is owned by its members –80 percent women– who currently operate 222 small farms in the Rwenzori Mountains of southwestern Uganda, where they raise high-quality, organically grown, hand-picked coffee.

Cooperative‘s operations include marketing its farmers‘ organic coffee and other products such as maize, passion fruit, and pineapple; finance initiatives– such as providing agriculture and small business loans to members – and member training and skills development.

Julius Meinl Industrieholding GmbH Julius Meinl is an internationally successful and renowned Austrian company and also the epitome of lived Viennese coffeehouse culture.

The Bukonzo Joint Cooperative is owned by its members, 80 percent of whom are women

The Cooperative was established to serve the poor farming communities in the region, which, due to war, poverty and location, have been marginalized in the past. The Cooperative‘s central focus is providing sustainable financial and capacity building services to the economically disadvantaged.

It is committed to improving the living standards of the rural poor, and ensuring that they are active participants in the economic, social, and political development of the area. Bukonzo Joint

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This worldwide success is based on the traditional values of the Julius Meinl Company: The highest quality standards and products of the best premium quality, comprehensive coffee expertise and perfect customer service. The company with headquarters in Vienna markets its products in more than 70 countries and has more than 25,000 gastronomy and business customers worldwide.

The “Julius Meinl Coffee Academy” initiates caterers and restaurant owners and their staff in the coffee expertise Julius Meinl has gathered over the course of almost 150 years. Julius Meinl also runs its own coffeehouses in Hamburg, Moscow and Chicago.

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4 QUESTIONS to: Webster Miyanda Webster Miyanda is the project manager of the International Coffee Partner (ICP) project “Sustainable Coffee Production

and Processing Coupled with Income Diversification in Mbeya Rural and Mbozi District” in Tanzania. ICP is a private sector initiative of five leading European coffee companies, i.e. Luigi Lavazza S.P.A (Italy), Löfbergs Lila AB (Sweden), Neumann Gruppe GmbH (Germany), Gustav Paulig Ltd (Finland) and Tchibo GmbH (Germany).

The ICP project has assisted 2000 smallholder farmers since 2005 to organize themselves and produce their coffee sustainably while increasing their productivity, improving their quality and strengthening market linkages. The intense capacity building and the project’s hand-on training approach led to the formation of primary and secondary organizational structures and, finally, to the establishment of Shiviwaka, an apex organization which became a licensed 4C Unit in 2009.This means that Shiviwaka serves as the head organization for these primary and secondary organizational structures.

What was Shiviwaka’s first introduction to the 4C Association?

Based on learnings from the ICP project in neighboring Uganda, the 4C Concept was introduced to Shiviwaka as a newly established farmer organization, and the requirements for 4C Verification were implemented. The project assisted Shiviwaka in designing and implementing the Internal Control System, a financial management and a management information system.

The ICP project operates with experts that hold 4C Training-of-Trainers certificates. Professional conduct of trainings and rigorous monitoring and evaluation has also ensured that participants have significantly enhanced their knowledge and implementation skills of 4C Requirements.

What kind of challenges have you met in actually transferring 4C Requirements from paper into action?

The implementation of the 4C Code of Conduct has been time intensive and has had a cost which could not have been met by Shiviwaka without the assistance of the ICP funded project.

Moreover, Shiviwaka was the first 4C Unit in Tanzania and could not follow other examples already set. In addition, no other external assistance, i.e. from governmental authorities of the Coffee Board was available for the implementation of 4C at the time.Therefore, the ICP project assisted extensively in the implementation of code requirements on farm and processing level as well as on the level of the 4C Unit’s capacity to meet the 4C Standard. Producers now expect to be rewarded for the higher quality they produce.

How do you like your coffee and how much do you drink?

I always get the factory roasted coffee and really enjoy it. When I am at work I don’t even count the number of cups I take. However, at home I take about 4 to 5 a day.

How does Shiviwaka incorporate the concepts of the 4C Association in its work?

Shiviwaka works with more than 90 farmer groups, acting as the apex organization for all its members. Through the project’s extension system capacity has been built at the individual farmer level, as well as at the primary and secondary organizational level in order to understand and implement sustainable agricultural and post-harvest practices.

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Portrait TestimoniAl of a 4C Unit The 4C Unit “Stockler 01” of Brazil was featured in the “4C Portrait from the Origin” edition of July 2009. “Stockler 01” is an exporter unit of the Neumann Kaffee Gruppe’s export company Stockler Comercial e Exportadora Ltda.

“It was a great pleasure for Stockler to receive the invitation to share our experience in the “Portrait”, recalls Osmar Moraes, the Stockler 4C Unit representative.

“Believing that this media would disseminate Stockler 4C Unit reality, we began the work, sorting pictures, resuming numbers, organizing information and trying to capture Stockler’s commitment to implementing the 4C Code of Conduct in words.

Mr. Osmar Moraes, Stockler 01

The outcome exceeded our expectations: Stockler 01 was congratulated on the Portrait by friends and associates, new opportunities to market 4C Compliant Coffee were built and the proof is that Stockler recently contracted a large coffee sale for 2010.”

The 4C Portrait from the Origin Four “Portraits from the Origin” have been published since the concept was introduced in spring 2009. In the “Portrait from the Origin”, 4C Units in coffee producing countries are presented to the reader. The 4C Association aims at providing its 4C Units a marketing platform in order to raise awareness and demand for their produce. The 4C Unit is portrayed with the different activities it carries out in the three dimensions of environ-

mental, economic and social sustainability as well as production figures such as available volumes of 4C Compliant Coffee, number of producers in the 4C Unit or number of business partners. In an interview with a representative of the 4C Unit, the progress the 4C Unit is making in implementing the 4C Code of Conduct is discussed, how tools such as the Self Assessment are applied and further growth possibilities with the 4C Association.

The most recent Portrait is of the 4C Units of the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia (Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia, or FNC), a non-profit association founded in 1927 by the coffee growers to improve their quality of life and the development of the coffee regions of Colombia. Find out more about the FNC 4C Units, and further portraits on the 4C Homepage!

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… DID YOU KNOW ? … the difference, in commercial reporting, between “contracted” volumes of purchased coffee and “received” volumes of purchased coffee?

In the 4C Newsletter of November 2009, the term “commercial reporting” was explained. In line with the newly formulated strategic goals of transparency and credibility of the 4C Association, there was a difference to this year’s commercial reporting compared to last year’s commercial reporting (the first 4C Coffee Year 2008/2009). 4C Members were, and will in future be, requested to report on

those volumes of purchased coffee that had actually been “received” within the coffee year, i.e. volumes not only purchased but also physically received by the final buyer during the coffee year by the time of commercial reporting.

In comparison, “contracted” volumes may include volumes of 4C Compliant Coffee purchased by final buyers in a coffee year but also volumes contracted to be received at a later stage.

For future estimations, contracted volumes will also be reported by members but only for internal use.

VERIFICATION MAP

Malawi

LEGEND OF THE MAP

FaCTS from 4C Licensed UNITS

62

Licensed 4C Units

10,224,557

Coffee bags (60kg each)

5

4C Units in process of verification

68,141

Business partners including producers

23

4C Units in preparation for verification

222,240

Workers (permanent and temporary)

368,205

Total growing area in hectares

Please note that one 4C Unit may have multiple types of verifications and licenses

Details of 4C Verification

4C ASSOCIATION | Newsletter | January 2010

90

4

Total registered 4C Units Licenses issued under Rainforest

Alliance Benchmarking Scheme

4C Units in need of follow-up verification

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Upcoming Events 4C Activities

Trade Fairs and Conferences

GTZ AdapCC Workshop, Comitán, Mexico, February 2, 2010 4C Regional Workshop, Guatemala City, Guatemala, February 24, 2010 Chapter Day of the International Women´s Coffee Alliance (IWCA), Guatemala City, Guatemala, February 25, 2010 4C Training-of-Trainers workshop, Guatemala City, Guatemala, March 2 - 4, 2010 4C Training-of-Trainers Workshop, Ruiru, Kenya, March 24 - 26, 2010

4C Association at the 7th African Fine Coffee Conference and Exhibition (EAFCA), Mombasa, Kenya, February 10 – 13, 2010 4C Association at ICO World Coffee Conference, Guatemala City, Guatemala, February 26 – 28, 2010 4C Association at NCA’s 99th Annual Convention, California, USA, March 18 – 20, 2010 Tea and Coffee World Cup Europe and GastWien, Vienna, Austria, April 25 – 27, 2010

For more information and actual events please visit the 4C Website.

IMPRINT Publisher 4C Association | 4C Secretariat Adenauerallee 108 | 53113 Bonn | Germany

EditorS Linda Besigiroha, Marie Stich

Responsible for content Christian Osterhaus

Design David Drexler Studios Munich, Germany

Photography Tran Duc Tai: 1, 2, 3 Doan Trieu Nahn: 4 Webster Miyanda: 7 Osmar Moraes: 8 Bukonzo Joint Cooperative: 6 4C Association: 4,5

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4C Association | 4C Secretariat

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