World Coffee Producers Forum Seeks To Sustain Agricultural Sector

MEDELLÍN, Colombia -- Representatives from all parts of the global coffee industry gathered here in mid-July for the inaugural World Coffee Producers Forum. The conference was organized to draw up an action plan for dealing with the growing difficulties faced by coffee farmers in many parts of the world, including low prices and excessive market volatility for producers, with larger profits remaining in the other links of the chain; adaptation to climate change; a scarce workforce with reduced generational continuity; and the precarious social conditions in many producing lands.

Taking into account the recommendations made in the, the action plan also will be based on a study to be conducted by an independent body. This will analyze the behavior of coffee prices and production costs over the past 40 years, and their correlation. It will determine whether international coffee prices on the New York and London exchanges reflect the reality of the physical market. The researchers will present alternative solutions to the problems discussed at the forum.

The event's final declaration resolved that a mutually responsible commitment to implementing and funding the action plan must be achieved at the highest level by representatives of the coffee industry, donors, international cooperative activities, multilateral organizations, and national and local governments.

The next step will be formation of a committee to pursue the plan's implementation. It will include of two representatives of producer associations in African countries; two from Mexico and the Central American and Caribbean countries; two from South American and two from Asian nations, and at least one representative of the industry in the rest of North America, Europe and Asia. The committee will submit a progress report at the next meeting of the International Coffee Organization's International Coffee Council, which is scheduled for March 2018.

The next World Coffee Producers Forum will take place in 2019, and the Committee will recommend its venue. Brazil has offered its territory to host the next Forum.

"We have just started a new process in the world coffee sector," said Roberto Vélez, chief executive officer of the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia (Colombian Coffee Growers Federation), which hosted the Forum. "Today we finished a reflection, assembling ideas, a process of listening each other, but it is only the beginning of what we hope is a new stage."

The forum was addressed by figures of international stature, including former U.S. president Bill Clinton; Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs; ICO executive director José Sette; the presidents of Colombia, Costa Rica and Honduras; agricultural ministers; and representatives of the whole coffee value chain.