Nestle & the Filipino farmer: A partnership that goes back 22 years

This year marks the 22nd anniversary of the Nestle Satellite Buying Stations (NSBS), a project that has helped coffee farmers earn more by procuring their crops at competitive world market prices.

“The NSBS gives coffee farmers the opportunity to sell their coffee beans directly to Nescafe at the most competitive prices,” said Bruno Olierhoek, head of the Coffee Business Unit of Nestle Philippines, Inc., the company that manufactures Nescafe.

Nescafe sources its coffee from around 30,000 Filipino farmers and deals with about 100,000 other people in the country who are in one way or the other involved in the planting, harvesting, processing and trading of coffee.

The first NSBS was established in 1986 in Davao City. Today, eight NSBS can be found across the nation — in Tuguegarao, Solano, Cavite, Iloilo, Dumaguete, San Francisco, Marbel and Davao. In addition, the Nescafe coffee factory in Cagayan de Oro also receives coffee beans direct from farmers.

These locations were selected due to their proximity to the country’s main coffee producing areas. The existence of support services such as presence of local banks, logistics and transport and the accessibility of farmers were likewise main considerations for the area selection.

Olierhoek said the NSBS is anchored on Nestle’s commitment to partner with coffee farmers in particular, and the coffee community in general.

“Nestle is a member of the Common Code for Coffee Community (4C) Association and one of this group’s thrusts is to ensure the efficient production of coffee, while at the same time improving the situation of coffee growers and workers worldwide,” he said.

The 4C is a good example of how multiple stakeholders can come together and help address the issues of sustainable agriculture development in coffee farming communities around the world.

Similarly, Nestle has been at the forefront of the establishment of the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) in the Philippines.

SAI was first established in Europe by Nestle Switzerland, S.A., Danone and Unilever. Its goal is to promote and support the development of agricultural practices that will help preserve the availability of current resources and enhance their efficiency, while at the same time help improve farmers’ lives.

Apart from the NSBS, Nestle has implemented other complementary programs that enhance the quality of lives of farmers.

In 1994, it established the Nestle Experimental and Demonstration Farm was established in Tagum City, Davao del Norte..

Here, farmers are trained on the proper way of growing coffee, reinforcing the importance of good crop management, and providing them with quality and high-yielding Robusta coffee planting materials. To date, the NEDF provides 80 percent of all Robusta cuttings in the Philippines.

The NEDF has likewise distributed hundreds of thousands or coffee seeds and seedlings, which have, in turn, generated thousands of jobs across the country.

In 2003, Nestle initiated another program that helped farmers further increase their income by encouraging the planting of other crops alongside coffee-the Coffee-Based Sustainable Farming System. This program encourages farmers to plant crops alongside coffee to gain an alternative income. This system likewise gives them the option to wait for the best time to sell their crops and not resort to the harvesting of premature beans.

“Nestle continues to think of ways to ensure the efficient production of coffee. And we know that we can only do this with a strong partnership among government, NGOs and everyone else who comprise the entire value chain. For this, we always think of the best available programs to assist farmers for the betterment of their livelihood,” Olierhoek concluded.