Coffee traceability
What does traceability mean?
Traceability is an important part of our sustainability work and a key requirement for verifying coffee as sustainable. In a nutshell, it means tracing and consistently monitoring the entire journey coffee makes from the farm where the beans are cultivated to the cafés and retailers that sell our coffee.
Close, comprehensive cooperation with our partners in the countries of origin is essential for ensuring traceability. The better we know the origin of our coffee, the more information we get about the quality of the raw coffee we use as well as the ethics of our supply chain. Together with our partners, we are continuously developing the operations and traceability of the entire supply chain.
Coffee travels a long way to reach us
Paulig buys a significant portion of the world’s green coffee, a total of up to 35 million kilograms per year. This coffee travels to us by sea from over 15 countries, such as Brazil and Colombia. Coffee farms are often small, family-run farms only a few hectares in size. Therefore, thousands of farms and farming communities are required to produce the amount of green coffee that we buy.
There are several stages in the journey of coffee from farms to shipment, varying by region and farm. For example, after harvesting, some farms process their own coffee while others send it to larger processing plants.
All our coffee can be traced back to production cooperatives or communities – in some cases even individual producers. This transparency allows us to collaborate with farmers and coffee suppliers to improve the sustainability and profitability of coffee cultivation and the entire production chain, as well as to solve any problems that may arise.
There is yet more to do
The demands for coffee traceability are increasing all the time, which we view as a positive thing for both sustainable development and nature itself. As legislation develops, requirements increase. More and more consumers also want to know the origin of their coffee, and stakeholders demand transparency. We are aware that as a sustainable frontrunner in our industry, more is expected of us.
An important example of increasing demands is the EU's deforestation regulation (EUDR). For coffee, the deforestation regulation requires, among other things, mapping the geolocation information of raw materials – in other words, where the coffee plantations are located. Our entire coffee chain is working hard to obtain the required information as required.