Sustainable Supply Chain: Sodexo UK and Ireland supporting coffee farmers
This Fairtrade Fortnight Sodexo UK and Ireland is highlighting the importance of Fairtrade to support the livelihoods of coffee farmers in Peru who produce the beans for Sodexo’s Aspretto coffee brand.
Sodexo hosts Peruvian coffee farmer
Kim Reeves, Retail Category Manager Hot Beverages for Sodexo, travelled to Peru in August 2015 to trace the coffee beans Sodexo buy to create triple certified Aspretto coffee, back to their source. Read Kim’s blog about the visit.
During Fairtrade Fortnight Sodexo UK and Ireland is hosting Franceska Salazar Hilacondo, a Peruvian coffee farmer, who is visiting Sodexo client sites to talk about the importance of Fairtrade to support the livelihoods of coffee farmers in Peru.
Sodexo’s retail category manager for hot beverages, Kim Reeves, first met Franceska this summer when she travelled to two Fairtrade coffee co-operatives – La Florida in La Merced and Bosque del Inca in Pitchanaki – with Sodexo’s coffee supplier UCC and representatives from the Fairtrade Foundation. The trip was arranged to trace the journey of the beans used in Sodexo’s Aspretto coffee brand back to the farmers who produce them and to understand some of the main issues they face.
Franceska is the eldest daughter of a farming family, who are part of the La Florida co-operative. In addition to working on the family farm, the 26-year-old studies international business administration at university. She has been researching the benefits of Fairtrade on smallholder farmers and is looking at development projects to help farmers in her region improve agricultural practices and increase production volumes.
Franceska will be visiting a number of Sodexo’s university and corporate services sites. She will give short talks about her life and family’s livelihood, with the aim of sharing insight about the importance of Fairtrade in supporting farmers and farming communities achieve a better quality of life.
Tracing the journey of our Aspretto coffee
When you think of Peru, you may not immediately think of coffee, but it is the source of the beans that create our triple-certified Aspretto coffee range, served at hundreds of sites across the UK. Aspretto is triple certified, this means that we are meeting the highest social, environmental and sustainability standards, and ensuring that farmers are being paid a fair price.
In August 2015, we accompanied representatives from the Fairtrade Foundation to trace the journey of our coffee beans back to their source, meet the farmers who produce it, and to see the tangible benefits of buying certified coffee.
We visited communities where Fairtrade cooperatives operate and saw first-hand how the additional investment Fairtrade makes in communities can benefit the families living there. A great example of this is the availability of micro loans that women and families can access through the cooperative to supplement their incomes and build more resilient livelihoods.
The journey back to the heart of our supply chain showed us how our certified Aspretto coffee improves quality of life for farming communities and ensure a sustainable supply of the coffee we love for future generations.
Kim Reeves”Through the support of the Fairtrade Foundation cooperatives can continue to invest in education through the technical school and technical managers. These initiatives undoubtedly improve quality of life for the farming community for years to come as well as ensure a sustainable coffee supply for future generations.” You can read Kim’s blog post here.
Kim Reeves, Retail Category Manager, Sodexo UK & Ireland
Visit Sodexo to learn more about their Sustainable Supply Chain.
Tags: sodexo
