An “ambitious strategic alliance” for $3.2 million dollars has been signed between food and drink giant Nestle and Fedecafe, a labor union, which represents more than 500,000 coffee growing families in Colombia, El Heraldo reported Thursday.
The 20-year contract sets out Nestle’s plans to buy large quantities of coffee to manufacture products sold around the world, and invest millions of dollars in coffee-related sustainability projects over the next ten years.
Caracol Radio reported Thursday that resources in the early phase of the contract will be used in the Valle del Cauca department to provide coffee growers with more disease-resistant and productive trees.The first phase of the plan is supposed to benefit around 1,200 families in the Valle del Cauca region.
According to the El Heraldo report, General Manager of Fedecafe Luis Genaro Muñoz said that this alliance “will increase the availability of resources in order to bring quality services to more coffee growers and better information to world consumers.”
Fiona Kendrick, the senior vice president of Nestle’s Beverage Strategic Business Unit stated: “We are impressed with the executional capacity and the extent of the activities that the Federation has developed and we are proud to have them as partners.”
A related report on Dinero.com states that the goal of Fedecafe is to close this year with 1,200 hectares of trees restored and with a total coffee production of around 9.5 million bags.