Nestle funds Yunnan coffee farmers for high quality

Since Nestlelaunched its program to provide free 4C (Common Code for the Coffee Community) training for coffee farmers and coffee company staff in July last year, Nestlé's coffee expert group have trained nearly 1,800 coffee industry professionals so far, providing them with free 4C manuals and helping them to obtain 4C certification. Nestlehas also set up a 4C Premier CSV Fund recently to further encourage Yunnan coffee farmers to grow high quality coffee with 4C sustainable standards.

The 4C standard is the common code extensively accepted all over the world that involves sustainable development of all supply chain links including coffee growing, production and processing. 4C training aims to promote the sustainable development of coffee production, processing and trade.

In the 2012-13 coffee bean purchasing season, over one third of Nestlé's total coffee beans procured at its Pu'er buying station were produced with 4C standards and aimed for international market. Nestlehopes that starting from 2015 all the coffee beans purchased by the company from Yunnan will come from sustainable resources with 4C certification.

"Ever since Nestlestarted the coffee program in Yunnan in 1988," said Mr. Wouter De Smet, Nestlé's coffee expert, "it has been committed to helping the province develop a thriving coffee industry. We hope that 4C training will, on the one hand, help local coffee farmers and growers unleash their production potential, enhance coffee quality and thus increase their income, and on the other hand, help Yunnan coffee establish itself as high quality coffee, setting a solid foundation for it to enter the international market."

As one of the first multinational companies that invested in agriculture in the southwest of China, Nestlehas been committed to working with local government to Create Shared Value to local society in the past 25 years. In April 2013, Nestleannounced its investment plan to build the "NestleCoffee Center" in Pu'er aiming to further promote the coffee industry. Nestlé's investment in Yunnan province have had profound impact on the local coffee industry and economic development for the past 25 years, transforming the province's mountainous region into a thriving, profitable Arabica coffee growing district.

Nestlé's coffee development programs in the province have been widely recognized by the public. In 2012, Nestlewas recognized with the "2012 World Business and Development Award" at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, and was named as the "Best Practice to Promote Societal Development" by the first annual conference of the UN Global Compact Network China the same year.