International Coffee Partners to be Prepared for Post-COVID-19
Support for Smallholder Coffee Farmers
July 23 - 2021\
Coffee Geography Magazine
Giuseppe Lavazza, Vice-Chairman of Lavazza Group, Italy, and
one of the ICP shareholder says: "We really need to be very present to
accelerate the rush out of COVID-19. And immediately continue to support
smallholder families with targeted actions."
While ICP is continuing to implement its holistic approach during the pandemic, learning through these difficult times, it is now well prepared to move into post-pandemic activities. ICP's past and continued work enabled farmers in ICP projects since the COVID-19 outbreak to be more food secure by diversifying income source, managing to cope better with the situation through local organizations that were supported by ICP with flow of information during the lockdowns to their members. Local organizations are weak in many coffee producing regions to carryout most of the rehabilitation of the post Covid-19 task where ISP becomes necessary to intervene to support in all major areas to bring back the farmers to the routine business environment.
"We are ready to reinforce the holistic ICP-approach
immediately after the pandemic. COVID-19 will hopefully just be a very bad
memory for all of us one day", says Lavazza. As soon as lockdowns are
lifted and daily life resumes in the home countries of coffee farmers, the
emphasis needs to be on continuing to strengthen the livelihood situation of
smallholder farmers even stronger than before the pandemic, Lavazza stresses.
Restrictions on our everyday life to
contain the Coronavirus are lifted in most European countries and
more than one third of Europeans have been fully vaccinated. However developing countries are lagging behind in that regard to reach everyone in rural areas where most of our farming partners are located. Countries like Uganda, Indonesia or Honduras are still in the midst of the restrictive measures where most of the coffee farmers are still not vaccinated yet. Travel restrictions is especially heavy burden on the
poorer part of the population.
Rural population of these countries rely in large parts on growing coffee and other crops.
International
Coffee Partners (ICP), a collaboration of the eight major European family-owned companies DeltaCafés (Portugal), Franck(Croatia), Joh.Johannson (Norway), LavazzaGroup (Italy), Löfbergs (Sweden), Neumann Gruppe (Germany), Paulig (Finland) and Tchibo (Germany), are dedicated to improve the
livelihoods of these farmers with well planned activities that could lift their communities to a more and better living standard. Since its founding in 2001, more than 100,000 families
have received trainings by ICP. Giuseppe Lavazza made his comment during the
online celebration of 20 Years of ICP – "we focus on people! This is how we can improve the
coffee sector by ensuring a good life for each smallholder farmer."
ICP shareholders Giuseppe of Lavazza,
Kathrine from Löfberg and Michael R. Neumann discussed the pressing issues faced by
smallholder coffee farmers together with Gunter Schall from the Austrian
Development Agency and Michael Opitz from ICP's implementing partner Hanns R.Neumann Stiftung (HRNS). The ongoing pandemic is just one of them. Another core
topic has been the conviction that even smallholder farmers and their families need to act
as entrepreneurs. That includes freeing themselves from just one source of
income.