By early April, the effects of COVID-19 had started to be felt across the coffee value chain, and Kenya’s government leaders instituted tough movement restrictions to curb the spread of the pandemic. Movement of agricultural inputs to growing areas and green beans to the market were disrupted, causing unanticipated delays. Extension staff from various organizations and institutions could no longer travel to coffee-growing regions, leaving coffee farmers feeling abandoned.
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This week, Tim Schilling, founder of World Coffee Research and president of WCR Europe, received the 2020 Sustainability Award from the Specialty Coffee Association in the Sustainability Champion category. The winners will be honored at the digital version of Re:co Symposium on Thursday, July 16, at 11:15 a.m. Pacific time.
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On June 21, WCR hosted the webinar "Unlocking Sustainability's Collaborative Advantage," which covered what it means to build a strategic sustainability portfolio and explored some of the difficulties and and opportunities therein.
Contributing their expertise to the webinar were Nick Kirby of global sustainability platform Enveritas, Saurin Nanavati and Frederik de Vries of sustainability program developer Ethos Agriculture, and Matt Broscio of roaster-retailer Peet's Coffee & Tea. Over the course of 75+ minutes, the group discussed the current moment in coffee sustainability, how to start a strategic sustainability platform, old sustainability tools versus new ones, what the collaborative advantage means in sustainability, how coffee compani...
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As a child, Ivan Ssembajwe, a young coffee farmer from the plush countryside of Luwero, Uganda, would keenly watch his grandmother and mother tilling the land day in and day out to grow crops for sustenance and income. With every changing season and passing year, Ivan’s fascination and passion for coffee farming grew as he observed the humble coffee seedlings flourish into mature trees bursting with crimson cherries. This fostered in Ivan a passion for farming and in due course, his mother taught him the basics of agriculture and gave him a portion of the family land to grow coffee professionally. Today, Ivan grows coffee intercropped with bananas on 1 acre of land a...
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In early 2020, WCR undertook a wide-ranging listening effort to collect input on current and emerging priorities for coffee agricultural R&D amid a rapidly evolving sustainability landscape. Nearly 1000 people, from farmers to roasters to national researchers, participated. The result are summarized in a new report and will inform the development of WCR's upcoming five-year strategy and program plan.