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Organic Coffee: a Quality Product Traded Fair |
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October 19, 2004
Organic Coffee: a Quality Product Traded Fair |
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Bonn, 19 October 2004 – Opportunities and challenges for the international development of organic coffee production and marketing were discussed at the recent International IFOAM Coffee Conference in Uganda. Organic coffee saw a tremendous development over the last two decades. Today approximately 20,000 metric tons of organic coffee is traded worldwide, which represents about 1.5% of the world’s coffee markets. Often ‘fair’ traded, it provides income for more than 500,000 people in developing countries. The Conference called upon actions to be taken to strengthen and further develop production and the international marketing. |
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The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM)
organized in cooperation with the Uganda Coffee Development Authority
(UCDA) the 3rd International IFOAM Conference on Organic Coffee took
place from October 6th to 8th 2004 in Entebbe/Uganda. The event
attracted over 200 participants from about 30 countries from all over
the world with strong presence of the African coffee sector. The
hosting country Uganda with about 21,000 organic coffee producing small
holders has become the leading country for organic coffee production in
Africa.
The three-day program of the conference was coordinated by the AgroEco
consultancy from the Netherlands, and covered a broad range of topics
from organic coffee production to certification as well as the
synergies that come along with fair trade. Bo van Elzakker noted that
the conference was an “eye opener for the different parties involved in
the chain, broadening their view, and helping them to better understand
the issues in the rest of the chain.”
A special focus of the conference was on small-scale organic coffee
production. The director of UCDA, Henry Ngabirano, emphasized this in
his conclusion: “Especially as small scale organic coffee farmers we
can collectively have a tremendous impact on the lives of the families
and the environment. We are confident that the future belongs to the
organic coffee sector.”
Participants identified and discussed the many opportunities for organic coffee production:
- The continuing growth in the organic market (speciality coffee segment as well as mainstream markets);
- The value of environmental services;
- The combination of organic agriculture with other social and environmental schemes;
- Innovative group certification procedures with internal control
systems, which allow smallholders to easier access certification,
improve quality management and gain market access.
Yet also a number of challenges were identified including:
- Organic coffee cannot solve all the problems of the general crises in the coffee market;
- Lack of harmonization in the organic sector (e.g. multiple organic certification);
- The need for an increased share of the coffee price going to the producers;
- Policies that promote practices contrary to organic such as genetic engineering (GMOs) and pesticides.
In a “call for action” conference participants called upon governments,
IFOAM and the private sector to work hard on finding solutions for
these challenges.
IFOAM’s President Gunnar Rundgren emphasized in his closing remarks:
“Organic coffee today is already sustaining the livelihood of half a
million people. This conference was giving tribute to the efforts of
these farmers. We re-confirmed the confidence in organic farming and
explored a number of interesting opportunities. I especially want to
point to the potential of the organic coffee to deliver environmental
services beyond a healthy and good-tasting cup of good coffee.”#
IFOAM Press Release, responsible Bernward Geier, Director for International Relations
A CD-ROM publication with all conference presentations will be
available soon from the IFOAM Head Office, please contact us
registering your interest.
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