Britain’s booming coffee market is built on a lot more than froth. Our insatiable thirst for coffee just keeps on growing. We already consume more than 2bn cups a year away from home and the café sector alone turned over an eye-watering £7.9bn last year. Pubs serve 3.6m cups per week. The foundations look solid.
But too often this boom comes at the expense of the people at the far end of the supply chain who are responsible for growing the all-important beans, and at a grave cost to the land on which they depend on.
But it doesn’t have to be like that, which is why on 1 February the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) launched a campaign calling on cafés, pubs and restaurants and indeed anyone who serves customers coffee, to serve only good coffee - coffee that’s good for the people growing it, good for the environment and, of course, good for business.
AMT became the first UK chain to go Fairtrade in 2004 and the hospitality and food service sector has come a long way since then, demonstrating many models of ethical coffee sourcing. The explosion of interest in coffee, speciality in particular, has been matched by the shared desire of businesses and consumers to deliver a better deal for the grower.
With Fairtrade Fortnight starting on 27 February, now is the perfect time to launch the SRA’s Food Made Good calendar of campaigns for 2017. We’re hosting a month long conversation, open to the whole food service and hospitality sector, to learn, share and ask about what makes good coffee.
What do we mean by that?
First and foremost that means sourcing ethical coffee – ensuring a fair deal for farmers and the environment. We want businesses across the sector to come together and share their experiences, their knowledge and their recipe for good coffee.
Some 125 million people depend on coffee for their livelihood, but receive a tiny fraction of the price it eventually sells for. And researchers predict that a lethal combination of climate change, low yields, diseases and pests will halve the amount of viable land for growing by 2050 (pdf).
Progressive initiatives are what will determine the future of the coffee industry. Currently, the average age of a coffee farmer is 56. By increasing its value, forward thinking businesses will help pave the way for a thriving industry with genuine career prospects for the next generation.
With a third of all UK consumers actively choosing to buy coffee brands that they believe are doing social or environmental good, there’s never been a stronger business case for ensuring that your baristas are popping a double shot of sustainability in each and every coffee they serve.
Boutique caterer bartlett mitchell, a long-time Fairtrader, took its commitment to the next level and developed a new brand built around a single origin Arabica grown by a female-run cooperative and increased sales by 20%. If you want to read about their story or hear from a range of roasters and cafés passionate about sourcing coffee that not only tastes good but does good, then come and join the conversation in our new online community. It’s an opportunity to learn from others as well as provide inspiration by sharing your story.
Excitingly, those cafés and restaurants that have been the trailblazers of the ethical coffee business are now extending their positive approach to the other ingredients that go into making it “good”. After all, while thinking about supporting global farmers, it would be irresponsible to overlook the plight of dairy farmers in the UK who provide the millions of litres of milk for that essential froth. Then there’s the mountain of takeaway cups that only now the industry is starting to recycle at scale. Turning used coffee grounds into biofuel is another outstanding and transformative recent innovation; LEON was among the first businesses to see the potential in their dark brown sludge, sending it off to be processed by bio-bean.
Good coffee has many different recipes. By starting this discussion, we hope to help everyone in the food service industry to find their own formula. Join the conversation here.
Support Global Farmers is the first of 10 campaigns the SRA is running during 2017 to define what makes a good restaurant or food service business.
For more information about Fairtrade Fortnight click here.
Content on this page is paid for and provided by Fairtrade Foundation, sponsor of the spotlight on commodities series
