JDE Peet’s, the parent company of Douwe Egberts, wants to buy all its coffee 100 percent “responsibly” by 2025. But the company has no idea exactly where the beans come from. “Coffee is coffee, right?”
By Irene van den Berg and Manon Stravens | January 18, 2023
Responsibly sourced means that its cultivation contributes to “farmer welfare, human equality and land sustainability,” Douwe Egberts writes on its website. To be sure the coffee beans meet this requirement, though, JDE Peet’s needs to know where the beans come from. The Investigative Desk traveled to Indonesia to investigate those ambitions and found a long and confusing coffee supply chain. Guarantees about the origin of a coffee bean appear to be unrealistic. Farmers also live in uncertainty because they are dependent on fluctuating coffee prices and unreliable middlemen. Coffee roasters have no answer to that.
Read the full article on Vrij Nederland (in Dutch).
