Coffee Watch Publications
Exploitation and Opacity
A new report by Empower in collaboration with Coffee Watch and the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Project, A.C. (ProDESC) titled “Exploitation and Opacity: The Hidden Reality of the Mexican Coffee in Nestlé and Starbucks Supply Chains,” finds that Mexican certified coffee marketed by Nestlé and Starbucks, is plagued by human rights violations, negative environmental impacts, and exploitative practices that trap small producers in Mexico in a cycle of extreme poverty.
Open Letter: Ensuring EUDR benchmarking reflects human rights and environmental risks
Coffee Watch has signed an open letter alongside 39 other organisations calling on the EU Commission to ensure the EUDR country benchmarking reflects human rights and environmental risks. Under the EUDR, the EU Commission will develop a methodology to benchmark countries based on the risk that their commodities are linked to deforestation. We are calling on the EU not to compromise the benchmarking through political deals and to consider human rights and legality.
Coffee Deforestation in Brazil
Coffee Watch and AidEnvironment, release the first of a series of company deforestation risk profiles. These will form the basis of a new deforestation regulation Compliance Checker. It links incidents of deforestation, forest conversion, and human rights abuses to companies that import forest risk commodities into the EU such as coffee. The first company profile examines JDE Peet’s, one of the world’s largest coffee companies. The profile identifies six coffee farms in Brazil from which JDE Peet’s appears to be sourcing coffee. These farms are linked to what satellite mapping shows to be forest clearing. Crucially, the forest in question was cleared after the EUDR cut-off date of 31 December 2020. There is a high risk that sourcing from these farms could result in non-compliance with the EUDR due to the detected deforestation.
Get Deforestation Out of Europe's Coffee
This briefing provides separate lines of evidence for why it is vital that coffee be regulated by the EUDR, and why coffee companies seeking to undermine the EUDR or find excuses for non-compliance, should not be considered as neutral interlocutors articulating reasonable and data-driven arguments.
Coffee Prices Skyrocket From Decades of Deforestation
To save future coffee, adopting agroforestry is key.
Coffee Companies are readier for the EUDR than they claim
Coffee Watch Founder & Director wrote an Op-Ed published by Mongabay. Major coffee companies and industry groups attempted to weaken the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), delaying its implementation until 2025 despite its goal of curbing deforestation and human rights abuses. The EU’s coffee imports contribute significantly to deforestation, child labor, and slavery, with millions of workers trapped in extreme poverty and forests being cleared for plantations, especially in Brazil, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Despite industry complaints, compliance costs are minimal, and coffee supply chains are simpler than other regulated commodities; companies must take responsibility without shifting the burden onto vulnerable farmers and workers.
Joint Letter to Ursula von der Leyen
We have joined more than 265 organisations to call the EU commission to uphold regulations that protect health, nature, climate, social justice, including workers' and trade union rights.
“Ghost Farms and Coffee Laundering”
This report details labor conditions on coffee farms in Yunnan Province based on three undercover field investigations, which found substantial abuses in Starbucks’ and Nestlé’s supply chains, especially affecting Indigenous communities.
Ally Publications
Deforestation Linked to Agriculture
This article shows that nearly 2 Mha of forest were replaced by coffee plantations between 2001 and 2015, of which 1.1 Mha were for robusta coffee and 0.8 Mha were for arabica coffee.
Bitter brew: Modern slavery in the coffee industry in Brazil
Despite repeated pledges to address the issue, major coffee brands are still failing to eradicate modern slavery from their supply chains. This report documents forced labour, debt bondage, and other abhorrent forms of exploitation in Brazilian coffee.
Syngenta coffee from farms with slavery-like working conditions
A subsidiary of the Swiss agrochemical company Syngenta, Nutrade Commercial Exportadora Ltd., and its associated brand Nucoffee, have repeatedly sold coffee from Brazilian farms where working conditions were similar to slavery.
Starbucks: slave and child labour found at certified coffee farms in Minas Gerais
An exclusive investigation reveals cases of slave and child labor in Brazilian coffee farms holding the C.A.F.E. Practices certification, owned by Starbucks in partnership with SCS Global Services (also holding the UTZ seal).
High hopes, low prices: How Nestlé is driving Mexican coffee farmers to ruin
Nestlé wants to be a leader in terms of ethical behaviour. However, Nestlé pursues a ruthless purchasing policy, particularly for its instant coffee. The farmers pay the price, as research in Southern Mexico shows.
Journal Article: Impact of Pesticide on Health of Coffee Plantation Workers
This article in the International Journal of Novel Research and Development examines the health impacts of the use of chlorpyrifos (a common pesticide) on coffee plantation workers in India.
