Marco Lavazza (Vice President of Lavazza Coffee) recently spoke to Global Coffee Report about the company's actions to promote sustainability in the coffee supply chain.
In an interview at the Australian Tennis Open (Lavazza has been the coffee partner for this event for five years), in the shadow of the recent fires raging across parts of that country, he recognised the effect that changes to weather patterns were having on coffee growing.
What is Lavazza Doing?
As a family company, Lavazza has had the freedom to act quickly and decisively to influence sustainable practices. In 2004, The Lavazza Foundation was founded to promote sustainability through spreading best practice. Helping farmers to improve coffee quality by sustainable means, enables them to achieve a higher price for their product.
Improving the rewards for producing coffee, helps negate the economic factors driving young people out of rural communities to cities.
This helps protect the long term future of coffee growing.
In 2019, Lavazza signed the International Coffee Association’s declaration on sustainable coffee. In the same year, Lavazza was recognised by The Reputation Institute as the top Food & Beverage brand for Corporate Responsibility.
What is Piano Coffee Doing?
Piano Coffee makes a monthly donation to The Rainforest Alliance based on the amount of sustainable coffee sold.
In the coming weeks, Piano Coffee will be making a series of blog posts focussed on sustainability from field to cup.
We have recently launched, Lavazza ‘Super Gusto’ blend. With similar characteristics to the leading blend ‘Super Crema’, this alternative is grown sustainably from higher quality beans.
To encourage the move to sustainable coffee, we will always sell ‘Super Gusto’ at a discount of at least 5% to our price for ‘Super Crema’. This will be the first of a number of actions in 2020 to support Lavazza’s sustainability efforts.
What Can You Do?
Please support our efforts by considering switching to one of our sustainable blends: ‘Super Gusto’, ‘Tierra’ or the organic blend ‘Alteco’.
If you need advice on how to manage the change to sustainable coffee, please drop us a line.
