Percolating Responsible Procurement: A living document for collaboration

Downstream buyers – especially retailers and roasters – amass the most value in the coffee supply chain, both for conventional and specialty coffees. This is a structural phenomenon in multiple agriculture value chains that is a colonial construct not unique to coffee. Civil society as well as industry associations like the Specialty Coffee Association acknowledge inequity in how value is distributed in coffee, highlighting producers’ minimal value capture as compared to their downstream trading partners.

 

This initial ‘living’ document contributes to the movement for driving equitable value and risk distribution for the benefit of producers – especially smallholders – and the planet, through responsible procurement. It offers a first attempt at three imperatives:

1. To redefine producers’ value contribution in ways that challenge downstream extraction and support a market‑based case for fairer value sharing that ensures farmers earn a living income.
2. Offer a channel for producers realities and experiences to be represented and to influence how responsible purchasing practices are defined given the ongoing initiatives at retail, brand and trader-level which are co-developed by those industry actors themselves alongside civil society and multistakeholder sector associations.
3. Call for collaboration with other civil society actors and producer networks who would like to join us in amplifying the producer experience through qualitative consultation and quantitative data.

Read the full paper in English here.

Also available in Spanish.

Author(s): Ashlee Tuttleman

Organisation/institution: VOCAL Network