New Policy Report Tackles Voluntary Sustainability Standards in Coffee (Daily Coffee News)

By Nick Brown 

The proliferation of the most popular third-party sustainability certifications in coffee has led to modest benefits to coffee producers overall, though many of the world’s poorest farmers lack the resources to participate, and supply of certified coffee may be outpacing demand.

Those are some of the biggest takeaways from a policy report published today by the Washington D.C.-based think tank the Center for Global Development that echoes numerous studies on the efficacy of voluntary certification schemes over the past decade, while attempting to summarize their findings. 

“Consumers pay higher prices for fair trade coffee, thinking it benefits farmers and the environment,” paper author Kimberly Ann Elliot, a CGD visiting fellow who has written numerous books on international development and trade policy, said in an announcement today. “But too often the poorest farmers are missing out on the benefits because they lack the capacity to participate.”

Read the full article here.