GCP and ICO Renew Multi-Stakeholder Sustainability Partnership

International Coffee Council Chair Massimiliano Fabian, ICO Executive Director Vanusia Nogueira, GCP Executive Director Annette Pensel and GCP Board Chair Carlos Brando in India. GCP press photo.

The International Coffee Association (ICO) and the Global Coffee Platform (GCP) renewed their vows to the global coffee sector today at the World Coffee Conference in India.

Leaders of the two groups signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that expands their partnership within the ICO’s Coffee Public-Private Task Force (CPPTF).

Established in 2019, the CPPTF involves collaboration between large private-sector coffee players and government organizations towards sustainability in the global coffee sector, in which millions of small-scale coffee farmers and farmworkers continue to live in poverty or near-poverty conditions despite escalating global demand. 

For the ICO — the intergovernmental agency whose membership represents the vast majority of the world’s commercially produced green coffee — the MoU continues a recent trend towards engaging the private sector through multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs).

The Global Coffee Platform, meanwhile, continues to engage many of the world’s largest green coffee buying and roasting companies for collaborative sustainability efforts, while promoting a baseline sustainability standard for coffee.

According to the organizations, the MoU signed today outlines GCP’s role in promoting the CPPTF Roadmap 2030, which includes broad-scale goals related to economic, environmental and social sustainability in coffee.

“Only a common approach to the future development of the sector can create achievable opportunities and pave the way for a sustainable, resilient and inclusive coffee sector,” ICO Executive Director Vanusia Nogueira said in an announcement shared by GCP today. “Through the CPPTF, the ICO intends to strengthen its partnerships to advance initiatives that ensure greater economic, ecological and livelihood sustainability for future generations of farmers.”

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