“The coffee value chain needs to work together under the principles of co-responsibility and solidarity to ensure sustainable coffee production, the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and farmers’ prosperity, which must be at the center of any action or policy. Poverty is the biggest predator of communities and the environment.”  Juan Esteban Orduz, Chair of the World Coffee Producers Forum

The World Coffee Producer’s Forum (WCPF) was born in 2017 to bring together coffee producers from across the globe and provide a unique space to gather and discuss critical issues of common concern to growers, including sustainability, climate change, environment, and prosperity.

The dialogue continues evolving towards the need of a more comprehensive approach beyond the issue of prices. It is necessary for the whole value chain to work together to create the necessary conditions or structure for FARMERS’ PROSPERITY, because currently, these conditions are not enough for producers to achieve a living income. In this regard, producers, governments of producing countries and other stakeholders need to develop “National Coffee Sustainability Plans” that identify national or subnational needs and priorities to bring prosperity to coffee communities and that contribute in the development of policies and actions that lead to farmers’ prosperity.

The 3rd meeting of the World Coffee Producers Forum in Rwanda, follows the previous ones in Medellín, Colombia in 2017, and in Campinas, Brazil in 2019. With an impressive group of experts, the focus of the 3rd Forum will be to secure the future of a coffee sector where coffee producers are prosperous, and coffee production is sustainable with the creation of National Coffee Sustainability Plans, which will help producing countries design and implement comprehensive coffee policies.

The World Coffee Producers Forum typically gathers wide media coverage and international attention, as well as visits of hundreds of participants from around the world. For example, the first Forum held in Medellín, Colombia in 2017, brought together over 1,400 producers, industry representatives, government officials, multilateral agencies, and nonprofits hailing from more than 40 coffee-producing countries. The second Forum held in Campinas, Brazil in 2019, gathered over 1,500 equally diverse and wide-reaching attendees.

During the multiday in-person events in Colombia and Campinas, and the virtual ones in 2021 and 2022, high-level guest speakers such as President Bill Clinton, President Juan Manuel Santos, President José María Figueres, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and renowned economist, Jeffrey Sachs spoke about the coffee sector’s unique challenges.  Additionally, forum participants had the opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions about coffee productivity, price volatility, climate change and other challenges the coffee sector faces. Peers and colleagues worked together to identify priorities and plans of action that allow the sector to continue prospering together.

In 2017, the Forum commissioned Professor Jeffrey Sachs and the Columbia Center for Sustainable Investments a study on coffee production sustainability, which was presented in Brazil in 2019 and has become a reference for coffee experts around the world.

Video Summary of the 2019 Report

2019 Report in English