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Look out, Austin! CRS Coffeelands at the 2017 National Coffee Association Convention

2017-03-19 Comments Off on Look out, Austin! CRS Coffeelands at the 2017 National Coffee Association Convention

 

We are 3 months into another year, and we’re about to start the convention/summit/expo/meeting season.  This year the schedule is a bit different for Coffeelands. This is the first year that we are going to the National Coffee Association Convention.  Over here in Coffeelands, we are big fans of Bill Murray, the CEO and President of the NCA.  If you haven’t seen his Re:co Symposium talk from last year in Atlanta, you can see it here – this is worth your time and recommended watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqtRhpcQd68

In Michael’s post that reflected on SCAA in Atlanta last year, the first item he brought up was Bill’s talk and the point that Bill made about the economic power of the coffee sector.  Per NCA research, coffee is responsible for $1 out of every $100 spent in the US economy. This type of economic power brings leverage in Washington D.C., and in just a few months into this new administration, it is clear that “money talks.” Ultimately, in order to advocate for public investment in supply chains, especially for coffee farmers not in the US, we will need to show clear business and economic justifications, as this is the only language that might be understood.  We come to the NCA convention to learn.  We are interested in learning how we can work with the NCA and other sector actors to advocate for policy changes that promote the long-term sustainability of this supply chain, starting with the policies that support farmers, who are the most vulnerable to risk. ones who face the most risk, the farmers.

As part of our participation at the convention, Andrew  will be facilitating a discussion session between the Global Coffee Platform and the Sustainable Coffee Challenge.  The GCP and the SCC will be outlining ways in which these two programs can cooperate and collaborate to promote sustainability in the coffee sector and at the same time raise awareness of each of how these initiatives will work with different sector actors to meet their goals. They will discuss what the potential value of each initiative presents for different sector stakeholders and how to communicate this potential value to decision makers at their respective companies and organizations.

Come find Andrew or myself there or at the Sustainable Coffee Challenge meeting or later during the week.   We’re looking forward to seeing everyone in Austin!

Kraig H. Kraft