COTECA Hamburg presents innovative programmes and new projects

COTECA Hamburg, International Trade Show for the Coffee, Tea & Cocoa Business
at the Hamburg Fair site from 4 to 6 June

Sustainable growing of coffee, tea and cocoa is on the advance. The benefits, particularly for the growing countries, are evident – improved conditions of work and quality of life, fairer prices and higher yield. And consumers also benefit from the fact that no pesticides are used, water consumption is reduced to the necessary minimum, and quality is improved. COTECA Hamburg, the International Trade Show for the Coffee, Tea & Cocoa, to be held at the Hamburg Fair site from 4 to 6 June, puts a strong focus on sustainable growing of coffee, tea and cocoa. The opportunities and potentials, in the context of climate change, will be a central area of the accompanying conference on 4 and 5 June. And the increasing importance of this subject will also be evident in the products and services presented by exhibitors at the new international trade show.

A key position is taken by international organisations such as the Rainforest Alliance, 4C Association, UTZ Certified, Tropical Commodity Coalition and Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International. They define standards for sustainable growing and certify the farms on the basis of standard criteria. More and more globally acting food manufacturers are joining their programmes, such as Nestlé, Unilever and Mars, and also coffee roasters and restaurant chains such as McDonald’s with their McCafés. Customers also include hotels and restaurants, leisure parks and airlines. The COTECA Hamburg conference will include reports on their experience and present projects by representatives of these organisations, and also by companies such as Tchibo and Kraft Foods.

The Rainforest Alliance, which is also exhibiting at the COTECA Hamburg trade show, launched the first certification scheme in 1989 with the first SmartWood programme for sustainable forestry. Today, 2.5% of the world’s coffee crop come from farms certified by the Rainforest Alliance. Since 2006 the organisation has also been certifying tea farms, and in 2009 it conducted the first large-scale group certification project in Kenya with more than 12,000 smallholder farmers. Sustainable cocoa growing with the Rainforest Alliance certificate is currently operating on a total of some 63,000 hectares.

UTZ Certified is likewise exhibiting at COTECA Hamburg. More than 95,000 coffee plantations and smallholder farmers participated in the UTZ coffee programme in 2009, that is an increase of 68% versus 2008. For cocoa growing, UTZ Certified 2007 launched a certification programme together with companies, NGOs and the WWF. “The focus of the programme is on Cote d’Ivoire, which is the world’s largest cocoa grower with a 40% share of the market,” says Elena Mihaylova, Head of Marketing & Communications at UTZ Certified. “Nine cooperatives there have been certified for the first harvest in 2010, plus a farmers’ association in Ghana and a plantation in Costa Rica, with an overall total of about 4,300 farmers. There are many more cooperatives and producers who are getting ready for certification next year.”

The GTZ has specialised in sustainable improvement in the living conditions of the local population. It is active in more than 130 countries. In a presentation at the COTECA Hamburg conference, Kerstin Linne, Project Manager at GTZ, will cover among other things the AdapCC pilot project (Adaptation for Smallholders to Climate Change) run by GTZ and Cafédirect, which ended in February. “Its aim was to work with smallholder farmers in the coffee and tea sector to identify and implement ways of adapting to climate change.”

Climate change is also at the centre of another project conducted in Kenya, involving not only GTZ but also the Kenyan coffee exporter Sangana Commodities, the 4C Association standards initiative and the World Bank. Kerstin Linne describes it like this: “The goal is to develop an additional standard module alongside the existing 4C coffee standard, taking account of climate change and linking adaptation to mitigation wherever possible.” The basis of the work of the 4C Association is the 4C Code of Conduct, defining minimum requirements for sustainable production, processing and trading of coffee. The organisation provides training for farmers locally, and enables them to gain access to modern production means and all relevant information.

Sustainability is also an important issue for coffee dealers, as the example of the Neumann Kaffee Gruppe shows – it is a global leader in coffee services, and is also exhibiting at COTECA Hamburg. “The Neumann Kaffee Gruppe is committed to growth-oriented, sustainable coffee business,” says Hanns-Christian Neumann, Head of Communication. “And that is also why the independent Hanns R. Neumann Foundation was set up. Its aim is to conserve natural resources and to improve the conditions of life of coffee growers by means of projects in cooperation with national and international organisations.”


COTECA Hamburg, the International Trade Show for the Coffee, Tea & Cocoa Business, is the first trade show in Europe which covers the whole value chain for all three segments – coffee, tea and cocoa – from the raw commodity to the finished product. It is accompanied by an international conference. COTECA Hamburg will celebrate its premiere at the Hamburg Fair site from 4 to 6 June, and is to be held every two years. It has the concept support of the German Coffee Association. For further information, please visit the website www.coteca-hamburg.com

Last update: 31.05.10

Gudrun Blickle