Biswas-Tortajada - Sustainability in Coffee Production

Juan Manuel Santos, President of Colombia

As President of the Republic and long-time friend of the coffee guild, it is very satisfying to know the work Nestl and its brands Nespresso and Nescaf has done in recent years to create shared value in the communities it sources from and in its Bugalagrande factory in Valle del Cauca.

Shared value is a business model that creates value for both the great entrepreneur and the producer. We have promoted this throughout this government.

Prosperity for everyone, for which we work tirelessly, has to be prosperity with everyone and for that, the private sector is an invaluable ally who accompanies us in order to build a Colombia with opportunities.

From different fronts, strategic partnerships with foundations, banks, construction companies, NGOs, utilities and the private sector, among others, have enabled us to improve the quality of life of the needy and most vulnerable Colombians.

So, in the past four years we fulfilled the goal of creating 2.5 million jobs, we holistically treated more than one million children with the Zero to Always ( Cero a Siempre ) strategy; we structured and began to implement the most ambitious road infrastructure plan in our history; and we built or started to build more than 900,000 homes, of which 100,000 were given out for free.

This is just to mention some of the projects in which employers are contributing significantly to the realisation of a Colombia that grows fairly by activating a virtuous circle of opportunity.

Our government is determined to promote rural development in our country as never before. We are building, along with our farmers including coffee growers a comprehensive agricultural policy with which we hope our fields begin to recover from decades of neglect.

The coffee sector plays a vital role in the national economy and that is why we support it through the Rural Training Incentive (ICR) and the Coffee Farmer Income Protection (CIP) scheme, thanks to which we managed to increase annual production to 11.3 million bags of coffee.

Of course, we still have a long way to go and what better way than to move forward alongside companies conscious of their transformative role in society.

Nestl is the largest buyer of coffee and fifth largest buyer of milk in Colombia. Its policy of shared value creates a great impact on the improvement of production processes, the welfare of its suppliers as well as on the creation of environmentally sustainable production systems.

This publication, which reflects the vision we share with Nestl, will allow the reader to know the many challenges faced by this leading company that not only took a gamble to build an industry in our country but that is also determined to progress hand in hand the communities it works with.

I appreciate the support the National Coffee Growers Federation has given to this publication that serves as a stimulus and guide for more companies to make the decision to promote their own development and that of the society by creating shared value.

No one can be rich if his neighbours are poor, said John F. Kennedy. This is understood by companies like Nestl, who know that the only worthy progress is the one that is shared with everyone.