Co-Responsibility for Global Challenges at the ICO’s Upcoming Forum on Coffee Finance

Registration is open for the International Coffee Organization‘s 6th Consultative Forum on Coffee Center Finance, taking place Wednesday, Sept. 21, at the ICO headquarters in London.

Co-sponsored this year by the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC), the forum grew out of the 2007 International Coffee Agreement as a way to “facilitate consultation on topics related to finance and risk management in the coffee sector, with a particular emphasis on the needs of small- and medium-scale producers.”

Why? As the ICO suggests, “Challenges such as price volatility, decreased farm yields and profitability, climate change, food safety, and social and environmental concerns among others, pose threats to the industry as a whole.”

With a theme of “Global Challenges and Co-Responsibility,” the day’s program centers around two fundamental questions: Are farmers bearing the brunt of the costs to address these issues? And, what can be done to evenly distribute value and responsibility across the coffee value chain?

Four panel discussions feature a broad range of stakeholders from both traditional coffee-consuming and coffee-producing countries, including those representing coffee farmer and cooperative organizations, financing, green coffee brokering, large-volume buying and roasting, and other fields within the global coffee sector. See the full program here.

The forum is open to ICO members and observers free of charge. Here are the details on how to attend. For some additional background on financing and price risk management on the coffee sector, see our recent guest column series from Kraig Kraft of CRS Coffeelands.