Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/1492816
24 STiR coffee and tea | 2023 Issue 1 (February / March) A s the first wholesale buyer and international distributor, the green coffee com- pany forms the hub between downstream businesses like roasters and cafes and the upstream operations of farms. As such, this company is in the supply chain's best position to monitor and support farms, farmers, and cooperatives to help ensure good livelihoods, strong social protections, and sound environmental practices. A forward-thinking green coffee company can help growers by acting not only as a buyer but a partner. It will have global reach, technical expertise, data, capital, and busi- ness know-how. And because wholesale buyers of beans are so deeply reliant on what producers are doing, they have a strong self-interest in sharing their resources to ensure good outcomes. If buyers fail to play a proactive role, they risk losing access to the expanding supplies of quality coffee that they need in order to do business successfully. Even when traders manage to access supplies that are good enough and big enough, they face other pressures. Consumers, investors, and other stakeholders have ever-higher expectations regarding the social, economic, and environmental impacts The production network that provides your cup of coffee spans the planet. To scrutinize the network's sustainability, you should take a close look at green coffee suppliers. of businesses and products. Sustainability regulations and certifications are prolifer- ating and becoming stricter. These insights come into focus from a review of sustainability programs at Neumann Kaffee Gruppe, headquar- tered in Hamburg, Germany. With more than 3,000 employees and operations spanning 26 countries on five conti- nents, NKG produces some 9% of all the coffee consumed in the world, mak- ing it one of the biggest of the green cof- fee companies. Size can be an advantage, especially when it comes to grappling with the challenges of monitoring and managing sustainability. A big company is better equipped to invest the necessary time, money, and personnel. A look at NKG's latest sustainability report, published in September 2022, * suggests that the company is helping lead the way in its industry in terms of the breadth, depth, and detail of its sustainability initiatives, especially regarding the two major chal- lenges of traceability and farming. Stakeholder collaboration is the key to improving environmental, social, and economic factors in coffee. Neumann Kaffee Gruppe: Ensuring Sustainability at the Supply Chain's Hub * https://sustainabilityreport.nkg.coffee/