SPP Global Denounces Coffee Prices, Calls for Living Income

The SPP logo

SPP, the farmer-owned third-party certifier focused on smallholder producer needs, has issued a damning denouncement of the current coffee trade, as coffee C prices remain at historically low levels.

SPP and its ownership organization, SPP Global, have joined a chorus of producer organizations, development-focused NGOs, government agencies and industry associations who have made public pleas regarding coffee’s current price crisis, calling for immediate action on the part of coffee buyers and the industry at large.

A “denouncement and recognition” statement from SPP global leads with the declaration, in all capital letters, “WITH 90 DOLLARS WE CANNOT LIVE.” The group is referring to recent ICE Futures/New York Stock Exchange prices for commodity coffee, which have been hovering close to 90 cents per pound in recent weeks. As of this writing, futures prices were sitting at 92.55 cents per pound (for July), 95.30 cents (September) and 99.20 cents (December).

10-year coffee price chart used with permission, from the Macrotrends 45-year coffee price chart.

By many accounts, those kinds of prices — even when augmented by contracted premiums based on quality, origin, volume, third-party certification or other factors — mean innumerable smallholder coffee farmers throughout the world are not receiving enough money at the farmgate level to meet costs of production.

“This price does not allow, in any way, small producers to produce coffee sustainably and less to have a decent income for a dignified life,” SPP Global wrote. “This price level destroys the lives of millions of people who give their lives to the quality of this product sold at increasingly higher prices to consumers. Those companies that buy coffee at the C Market price, unfortunately, are accomplices in the loss of prospects for a decent life of millions of families of small coffee producers around the world. This also has ecological destruction ramifications and the consequential exacerbation of global climate change affecting day by day the life and future of the entire population of the planet.”

SPP’s certification scheme involves a floor price of $2.20 per pound (or $220 per 100 pounds) for certified washed Arabica coffees.

“With this price, we have managed to improve our revenues and improved the future prospects for the new generation with the full support of our commercial partners,” the group wrote. “Conscious, highly effective and supportive companies have been able to grow in the different markets with great success from specialty cafes to supermarkets while still paying the price of US $220.”

Here is the SPP Global declaration in full:

Boston, Massachusetts, SCA 2019

Denouncement and Recognition

For Justice in the International Coffee Market

More than five hundred thousand families of small organic producers organizations of coffee and other products, marketing companies and allies of SPP (Small Producers’ Symbol) on five continents, in the framework of the world’s largest specialty coffee fair, in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, USA, on April 12, 2019, we express:

WITH 90 DOLLARS WE CANNOT LIVE. The current price on the C Market of the New York Stock Exchange for Arabica coffee on April 12, 2019, is below US $90 per 100 lbs. of washed green coffee, a situation similar to that of 30 years ago. This price does not allow, in any way, small producers to produce coffee sustainably and less to have a decent income for a dignified life. This price level destroys the lives of millions of people who give their lives to the quality of this product sold at increasingly higher prices to consumers. Those companies that buy coffee at the C Market price, unfortunately, are accomplices in the loss of prospects for a decent life of millions of families of small coffee producers around the world. This also has ecological destruction ramifications and the consequential exacerbation of global climate change affecting day by day the life and future of the entire population of the planet.

WITH 220 DOLLARS WE CAN LIVE. In 2010, the SPP (Small Producers’ Symbol) coffee producers had set the minimum price necessary to produce sustainably and with organic certification, working democratically and inclusively, at US $220 per 100 pounds of washed Arabica green coffee. With this price, we have managed to improve our revenues and improved the future prospects for the new generation with the full support of our commercial partners. Conscious, highly effective and supportive companies have been able to grow in the different markets with great success from specialty cafes to supermarkets while still paying the price of US $220. We express our appreciation to these companies for their work and the great commitment with the small coffee producers. We have shown, as SPP Family, that yes you can live with a price of US $220 in the market, achieve a better life for producer communities and have a better planet.

We call on all companies in the coffee sector to become aware. Show solidarity. Work in partnership with organized small producers. Recognize while the problem is not only the price, today a minimum sustainable price of US $220 is necessary. Together we have to make consumers and markets recognize that current prices are not an option. Hunger is not an option. Forced migration is not an option. The destruction of the planet is not an option. The option for US $220 opens the door to a better world.

We count on your responsible collaboration, today and always!

— SPP, Small Producers’ Symbol

— SPP Global

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