KUALA LUMPUR: Nestle SA is committed to investing more than one billion Swiss francs to make coffee farming for its Nescafe brand more sustainable.
Parked under Nescafe Plan 2030, the company is working with coffee farmers to help them transition to regenerative agriculture while achieving zero net greenhouse gas emissions.
The company aimed to achieve 100 per cent responsible sourced coffee by 2025.
It also targets 20 per cent of coffee to be sourced from regenerative agriculture methods by 2025 and 50 per cent by 2030.
Nestle head of coffee strategic business unit Philipp Navratil said brands today need to incorporate sustainability at the core of their operations to be successful in the long run.
However, the company's adoption of sustainable practices would not translate to additional costs on its end products.
"Transition to regenerative practices is at the core of our strategy, and that will not mean we will charge that back to consumers.
"We see it as an investment in the brand and in making our products better and more robust, and we also view this as a competitive advantage.
"We will not wait for inflationary pressures to bake in the sustainability premium.
"We do not see it as a cost but rather as an investment that is important for our brand's success and future," he said during the virtual launch of Nescafe Plan 2030.
The company will offer training, technical assistance, high–yielding coffee plantlets to farmers, and conditional cash incentives to encourage them to move to a more sustainable method of coffee farming.
Among the regenerative agriculture practices that the company promotes include planting cover crops that help to protect the soil and incorporating organic fertilisers that would contribute to soil fertility.
The company focuses on seven key origins from where the brand sources 90 per cent of its coffee, namely Brazil, Vietnam, Mexico, Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire, Indonesia, and Honduras.
As for its plans in Malaysia, Nestle green coffee farmer connect manager for zone Asia Oceania Africa Wouter de Smet said the company welcomes any pilot initiatives to support its global green initiatives.
The company will track the progress and assess the results of its field programs with coffee farmers through its Monitoring and Evaluation partnership with the Rainforest Alliance.
Its efforts will be complemented by new and expertise-focused partnerships, like the one with Sustainable Food Lab for topics related to coffee farmers' income assessment, strategy and progress tracking.