4C ASSOCIATION | Newsletter | January 2010 1

4C – FACTS AND NEWSA quarterly update on 4C Activities | Edition 6 January 2010

4C Association marks major achievements in commercial reporting results, in membership growth and with new Strategic Plan 2015.

The 6th Council of the 4C Association was held in Da Lat on Dec 2-3, giving credit to the importance of the Vietnamese coffee sector and the growing 4C Membership in Vietnam. The main point of interest during this Council meeting was the 2nd Commercial Reporting of the 4C Membership. The accumulated data revealed a major success: The purchased volumes increased from 194.000 bags to 492.456 bags of 4C Compliant Coffee in the second operational year of the Association, which makes a rise of more than150%. At the same time it was common understanding among

the Delegates that much more has to come to fulfill the 4C Association’s goal to be a successful “mainstream” sustainability Code.

Therefore it was of special importance that Mela-nie Rutten-Sülz, Executive Director of the 4C Association, could announce a further increase in demand of at least 50% for the present coffee year 2009/2010 (for details: please see 4C Press Release, December 2009 ). This is excellent news to the producing members of the Association who nearly doubled their production potential from 4.6 million to 9.5 million bags in the last coffee year.

ThE 4C ASSOCIATION hOldS ITS 6Th COuNCIl MEETINg IN dA lAT, VIETNAM

Mr. Kevin Billing, moderator, welcomed Council Meeting participants to two days of lively discussion and interaction

A major achievement of the 6th Council Meeting was the approval of the Strategic Plan 2015

4C ASSOCIATION | Newsletter | January 2010 2

FiRST 4C REgioNAL WoRKShoP oN SuS-TAiNABLE CoFFEE DEVELoPMENT, DA LAT

The 4C Association held its first regional workshop on Sustainable Coffee develop-ment in cooperation with the Vietnamese department of Crop Production, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) on dec 4, 2009 in da lat, Vietnam.

80 national and international representatives, among them Vietnamese government officials from the central and provincial levels, the Executive Board and Council of the 4C Associ-ation, Vietnamese coffee companies, research institutions and support organizations were present at the workshop. The participants exchanged learnings, discussed and elaborated practical recommendations for collaboration towards the development of a sustainable coffee sector in Vietnam.

The opening of the fourth 4C Regional office was announced and Mr. Do Ngoc Sy introdu-ced as Technical Coordinator for Vietnam. The news was applauded as a next step towards intensified support and interaction amongst 4C Members and partners in Asia. After two

A key achievement was the approval of the Strategic Plan 2015 and the respective priority activities for 2010. The Council and Member-ship had been working intensively in several working group meetings since February 2009 to elaborate this key document that will guide the activities of the Association in the next years.

Additionally, the Council was informed about other major achievements of the Association: Preliminary findings of the first impact moni-

toring undertaken by the Association reveal, that the 4C Code of Conduct shows posi-tive effects on the ground. The membership growth continued (from 99 in 2008 to 126 in 2009). The Council also voted to take the fast track to achieve full iSEAL membership and agreed on a slightly increased budget for 2010. Finally the membership fee structure was revised to attract new members among suppliers, banks, research institutions and consultancies.

80 national and international representatives were present at the first 4C Regional Workshop on Sustainable Coffee Development, December 4, 2009

Prof. Bernardo van Raij, Vice-Chairman of the 4C Technical Committee, presented the results of the indicator revision process of the Technical Committee

Participants of the 6th Council Meeting in Da Lat that marked the extension of 4C Activities in Vietnam

4C ASSOCIATION | Newsletter | January 2010 3

oNLiNE MARKETPLACE KEy To BRiDgiNg SuSTAiNABLE FiNANCiNg gAP

The Finance Alliance for Susta-inable Trade (FAST), with the support of oxfam Novib and the Citi Foundation, has launched

an online Financial Marketplace to improve access to finance for sustainable small and medium enterprises (SMEs) around the world. FAST’s online Financial Marketplace is now pub-lically available in English, French, and Spanish through the FAST website.

The Financial Marketplace is a web-based access point, which consolidates all the financial services offered by FAST-partnered institutions in an easy to read and user-friendly format. This innovative tool enables sustainable producers and other SMEs to quickly gain access to an extensive list of socially oriented lenders, com-

pare product offerings and financing options, and connect with the lenders that best suit their business needs.

in addition to providing sustainable trade borrowers with the tools needed to make educated financing decisions, the Financial Marketplace will also benefit socially oriented lenders. Not only will it allow lenders to extend their financial reach to sustainable producers globally; data made available through the Financial Marketplace will give them insight on the state of the whole sustainable SME finan-cing sector.

The online Marketplace is available immedia-tely by creating a free FAST account. Account instructions are available on the FAST website.

F I N A N C E A L L I A N C EFOR SUSTAINABLE TRADE ©

4C Members and Secretariat representatives witnessed important production processes on a field trip to the Thai hoa Company in Da Lat, December 5, 2009

years of close cooperation with MARD, the 4C Association and MARD will have new opportunities to work together in aspects such as training and capacity building in sustaina-ble agricultural practices, food safety, quality

improvement, traceability and the organiza-tional development of farmer groups. Mr. Do Ngoc Sy was thus invited to represent the 4C Association at the Vietnamese Coffee Task Force under MARD in order to intensify the collaboration between the two partners.

MARD and Vicofa presented details on the ‘Programme proposal on coffee sector deve-lopment towards sustainable production and trade in Vietnam until 2020’ at the workshop. “MARD highly appreciates 4C Association’s vision as it is in line with the sustainable deve-lopment concept of the Vietnamese govern-ment and Assembly,” said the Department for Crop Production, MARD.

Documents and presentations are available on request via the 4C Secretariat.

4C ASSOCIATION | Newsletter | January 2010 4

gENDER AND CERTiFiED CoFFEE ChAiNS

Among the focal points of the new Strategic Plan 2015 of the 4C Association, the ques-tion of gender and women empowerment is to play a very important role. Sustainable development in the coffee sector should go deeper to address what kind of role women play along the coffee value chain and how they are rewarded for their efforts.

in November 2009 oxfam-Novib, hivos, Soli-daridad and the Royal Tropical institute (KiT) convened a workshop in Costa Rica on gender and certified/verified coffee chains. The aim of the workshop was to share lessons learnt, document emerging practices, identify chal-lenges and develop action points for different actors including standard setting organisations and producer organizations. Ten cases from Africa and Latin America were the basis for discussion during the workshop.

Coffee production tends to be perceived as men’s work, however, the cases presented clearly demonstrated that women are active participants. For example, in guatemala about 12% of women of the total of coffee produ-cers and workers plant coffee seedlings and 3% participate in plant maintenance while 45% engage in harvesting. Nonetheless, women’s contributions are not equally recog-

nized or equally valued financially. A Kenyan case illustrated that while women contribute significantly to coffee production, represen-tation within the cooperative is negligible. gender roles in coffee production and proces-sing differ world-wide, but poor recognition of women’s work is shared and the lack of representation and participation in decision-making is striking.

Certification/verification programs have had both direct and indirect impacts on female representation in producer cooperatives and on improving recognition and value of women’s work. For example through gender policies, female membership in cooperatives has signifi-cantly increased. Also several initiatives impro-ved female access to resources. A Nicaraguan cooperative increased female membership from 6.3% in 2007 to 15% in 2009 through the implementation of a gender policy. Another approach is that of Café de Mujer, a gender standard developed by Mayacert S.A. that uses a women-only label to differentiate its product. Compliance ensures that women have access to (own) land and sell their own coffee.

Women should be paid according to the work they contribute, should be represented in cooperatives and should be given the oppor-tunities to become entrepreneurs themselves. organizations can help to strengthen the positive impact of certification and monitoring, and in the case of the 4C Association, of verifi-cation, on the position of women through inte-grating gender indicators into existing stan-dards and to develop new policies to monitor and achieve gender-equality objectives along the coffee supply chain within the guidelines of local legislation.

Ms. Leda Talavera, Pueblos en Acción Comunitaria (PAC), pre-senting at the gender and Certified Coffee Chains Workshop, November 2009, Costa Rica

4C ASSOCIATION | Newsletter | January 2010 5

NEW 4C REgioNAL oFFiCE oPENED iN ViETNAM

The 4C Association is proud to be extending its activities in Vietnam with the opening of its fourth regional office in Vietnam. The news was officially announced during a major workshop on Sustainable Coffee Development on Decem-ber 4 in Da Lat, Vietnam.

Mr. Do Ngoc Sy was introduced as the new Technical Coordinator of the 4C office in Buon Ma Thuot City, Dak Lak province. Before he joined the 4C Association, Do Ngoc Sy worked for the gTZ Rural Development Project in Dak Lak Province as a National Training Coordinator / Assistant Team Lea-

der from 2003 - 2009. his motivation to work in the field of sustainability comes from his conviction that it is indispensable to steer agricultural produc-tion toward sustainable production, especially in the coffee sector.

in his new role as 4C Technical Coordinator, Do Ngoc Sy is looking forward to close cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Deve-lopment (MARD) and with relevant coffee sta-keholders in Vietnam: “i am glad to be a part of increasing the presence of the 4C Association in Vietnam and share its vision of a more sustainable and transparent worldwide coffee sector”. Asked how he likes to have his own coffee, Mr. Do Ngoc Sy finishes by saying, “a cup of coffee with milk every morning.”

NEWS FRoM 4C oFFiCE CENTRAL AMERiCA

The first 4C Verifier Refresher Workshop for Spanish speaking verifier companies in the region took place in Managua, Nicaragua, from Novem-ber 17 – 20, 2009. it was a 4-day workshop that included a field exercise, where the participants could put into practice the knowledge from the first two days of the workshop, finalizing with a day of presentation of results and recommenda-tions for the 4C unit visited as well as final discus-sions with the workshop participants.

The workshop participants appreciated very much the practical field exercise which was an improvement in the verifier workshop pro-gramme of the 4C Association. The exercise suc-ceeded in bringing different verifier companies to work together in the field which the work-shop participants had never experienced before.

This success was due to the feedback of partici-pants of previous workshops and of course due to the active, open and cooperative participation of the participants of this workshop.

The next 4C refresher verifier workshop will take place in Brazil after the carnival season. Con-crete dates will be updated and announced on the 4C Website .

NEWS FRoM 4C oFFiCE BRAZiL

The first meeting of the producers’ chamber of Brazilian Members of the 4C Association took place on September 2, 2009. The meeting took place in Franca-SP and was hosted by Cocapec . The aim of the meeting was to bring representa-tives of the 4C Producer Chamber in Brazil together and also to intensify the exchange of information and ascertain needs met in the field during the appli- cation of the 4C Code of Conduct, especially for small-holder farmers.

At the meeting, experiences from efforts to develop a more sustainable coffee sector were exchanged by the different 4C unit represen-tatives. Among the participants were Cooxupé, Cooparaíso, Cocatrel, Acenpp, Expocaccer and the instituto Agronômico iAC, which was repre-sented by Prof. Bernardo Van Raij.

Producer representatives decided at the mee-ting to create a tool to standardize the internal monitoring system of 4C units. They discussed the possibilities of the adaptation of regional indicators of the 4C Code of Conduct and also announced the creation of the first 4C Regional Sustainability Forum with the participation of all 4C Chambers which is scheduled for early 2010.

NEWS FROM ThE ORIgIN

Participants of a 4C Training-of-trainers workshop in Campinas, Brazil, october 27 – 29, 2009

Mr. Do Ngoc Sy, Technical Coordinator of the newly opened 4C office in Vietnam

4C ASSOCIATION | Newsletter | January 2010 6

Mr. doan Trieu Nahn is the Vice Chairman of and Senior Advisor to the Vietnamese Coffee and Cocoa Association (ViCoFA). VICOFA is an Associate 4C Member and has been involved in the 4C Association since the project phase of the Association in 2003. “The 4C Association has remar-kably developed across the continents

in the short time since it was founded. In Vietnam alone, there are 12 registered and verified 4C units

with the production potential of 1.4 million bags of 4C Compliant Coffee,” notes doan Trieu Nahn. “The Vietnamese coffee sector, on its way to sus-tainability, has been enriched by the new ideas of the 4C Association. As a founding member, VICOFA strongly believes in the sustainable development of the coffee sector on the basis of the 4C Code of Conduct to move away from coffee certified and consumed in niche markets and towards sustaina-bility in the mainstream coffee sector .”

STATEMENT oF A 4C FouNDiNg MEMBER

BuSAANyi FARM ATTENDS ThE MPigi DiSTRiCT CoFFEE STAKEhoLDERS’ PLAT-FoRM iN ugANDA

The Mpigi District Coffee Stakeholders‘ Platform, a district coffee show, was held in uganda on November 6, 2009.

The 4C Association was represented by Busaanyi Farm, a 4C Member from the Producer Chamber. Busaanyi Farm had a booth and also holds the chairmanship to the steering committee of the district platform. There was a clear emphasis on the dissemination of information related to the 4C Association. Providing information in the local language of Luganda was a priority.

The Mpigi District Coffee Show is a platform which brings all coffee stakeholders in the district together. it is affiliated to the National Coffee Stakeholders Platform of uganda. The Platform has got a steering committee which is coordinating a coffee production campaign in Mpigi district, with the target to produce a 40% share of uganda‘s coffee exports by 2015.

“The day‘s theme was ‘unlocking the Wealth in your Coffee’”, explains Mr. Badru Kiryowa of Busaanyi Farm, “so farmers are by all means ready to ‘unlock that wealth through improved farming practices as well. We look forward to welcoming new 4C units through this coffee campaign process.”

Next steps in the platform’s work plan include a broad range of activities like:

going down to the grassroots in sub-counties in �order to increase awareness of agricultural inputs as well as their use and benefitsthe demonstration of good agricultural practices �for the coffee value chaindisseminating coffee information on production, �value addition, marketing and consumptionbringing the youth and women on board �and getting farmers organized in adopting a �common goal in the coffee value chain

NEWS FRoM 4C MEMBERS

Mr. Badru Kiryowa of Busaanyi Farm received the 4C License from Ms. Annette Pensel, 4C Director Support Services, in June 2008

4C ASSOCIATION | Newsletter | January 2010 7

NEW MEMbERS …

ThE 4C ASSoCiATioN WARMLy WELCo-MES SiNCE NoVEMBER 2009:

From the Trade and Industry Chamber:Julius Meinl industrieholding gmbh, �

a final buyer and important coffee roas-ter from Austria

From the Producers ChamberBukonzo Joint Cooperative Microfinance Society �Ltd., a cooperative from uganda.

BuKoNZo JoiNT CooPERATiVE MiCRoFiNANCE SoCiETy LTD.

Bukonzo Joint Cooperative Micro Finance Society Ltd. (Bukonzo Joint Cooperative) , founded in 1999, is owned by its members –80 percent women– who currently operate 222 small farms in the Rwenzori Mountains of southwestern uganda, where they raise high-quality, organically grown, hand-picked coffee.

The Cooperative was established to serve the poor farming communities in the region, which, due to war, poverty and location, have been marginalized in the past. The Cooperative‘s central focus is providing sustainable financial and capacity building services to the economically disadvantaged.

it is committed to improving the living standards of the rural poor, and ensuring that they are active participants in the economic, social, and political development of the area. Bukonzo Joint

Cooperative‘s operations include marketing its farmers‘ organic coffee and other products such as maize, passion fruit, and pineapple; finance initiatives– such as providing agriculture and small business loans to members – and member training and skills development.

JuLiuS MEiNL iNDuSTRiE-hoLDiNg gMBh

Julius Meinl is an internatio-nally successful and renowned

Austrian company and also the epitome of lived Viennese coffeehouse culture.

This worldwide success is based on the traditional values of the Julius Meinl Company: The highest quality standards and products of the best premium quality, comprehensive coffee expertise and perfect customer service. The company with headquarters in Vienna markets its products in more than 70 countries and has more than 25,000 gastronomy and business customers worldwide.

The “Julius Meinl Coffee Academy” initiates cate-rers and restaurant owners and their staff in the coffee expertise Julius Meinl has gathered over the course of almost 150 years. Julius Meinl also runs its own coffeehouses in hamburg, Moscow and Chicago.

NEW MEMbERS PORTRAIT

The Bukonzo Joint Cooperative is owned by its members, 80 percent of whom are women

4C ASSOCIATION | Newsletter | January 2010 8

Webster Miyanda is the project manager of the International Coffee Partner (ICP) project “Sustainable Coffee Production and Processing Coupled with income Diversification in Mbeya Rural and Mbozi District” in Tanzania. iCP is a private sector initiative of five leading

European coffee companies, i.e. Luigi Lavazza S.P.A (Italy), Löfbergs Lila AB (Sweden), Neumann gruppe gmbh (germany), gustav Paulig Ltd (Fin-land) and Tchibo gmbh (germany).

The ICP project has assisted 2000 smallholder farmers since 2005 to organize themselves and produce their coffee sustainably while increasing their productivity, improving their quality and strengthening market linkages. The intense capa-city building and the project’s hand-on training approach led to the formation of primary and secondary organizational structures and, finally, to the establishment of Shiviwaka, an apex organiza-tion which became a licensed 4C unit in 2009.This means that Shiviwaka serves as the head organiza-tion for these primary and secondary organizatio-nal structures.

What was Shiviwaka’s first introduction to the 4C Association?based on learnings from the ICP project in neigh-boring uganda, the 4C Concept was introduced to Shiviwaka as a newly established farmer organi-zation, and the requirements for 4C Verification were implemented. The project assisted Shivi-waka in designing and implementing the Internal Control System, a financial management and a management information system.

how does Shiviwaka incorporate the concepts of the 4C Association in its work? Shiviwaka works with more than 90 farmer groups, acting as the apex organization for all its members. Through the project’s extension system capacity has been built at the individual farmer level, as well as at the primary and secondary organizational level in order to understand and implement sustainable agricultural and post-har-vest practices.

The ICP project operates with experts that hold 4C Training-of-Trainers certificates. Professional conduct of trainings and rigorous monitoring and evaluation has also ensured that participants have significantly enhanced their knowledge and imple-mentation skills of 4C Requirements.

What kind of challenges have you met in actu-ally transferring 4C Requirements from paper into action?The implementation of the 4C Code of Conduct has been time intensive and has had a cost which could not have been met by Shiviwaka without the assistance of the ICP funded project.

Moreover, Shiviwaka was the first 4C unit in Tan-zania and could not follow other examples already set. In addition, no other external assistance, i.e. from governmental authorities of the Coffee board was available for the implementation of 4C at the time.Therefore, the ICP project assisted extensively in the implementation of code requi-rements on farm and processing level as well as on the level of the 4C unit’s capacity to meet the 4C Standard. Producers now expect to be rewarded for the higher quality they produce.

how do you like your coffee and how much do you drink?I always get the factory roasted coffee and really enjoy it. When I am at work I don’t even count the number of cups I take. however, at home I take about 4 to 5 a day.

4 QuESTIONS TO: WEbSTER MIyANdA

4C ASSOCIATION | Newsletter | January 2010 9

Four “Portraits from the origin” have been pub-lished since the concept was introduced in spring 2009. in the “Portrait from the origin”, 4C units in coffee producing countries are presented to the reader. The 4C Association aims at providing its 4C units a marketing platform in order to raise awareness and demand for their produce. The 4C unit is portrayed with the different activities it carries out in the three dimensions of environ-

mental, economic and social sustainability as well as production figures such as available volumes of 4C Compliant Coffee, number of producers in the 4C unit or number of business partners. in an interview with a representative of the 4C unit, the progress the 4C unit is making in implemen-ting the 4C Code of Conduct is discussed, how tools such as the Self Assessment are applied and further growth possibilities with the 4C Association.

The most recent Portrait is of the 4C units of the National Federation of Coffee growers of Colom-bia (Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colom-bia, or FNC), a non-profit association founded in 1927 by the coffee growers to improve their quality of life and the development of the coffee regions of Colombia. Find out more about the FNC 4C units, and further portraits on the 4C homepage!

ThE 4C PoRTRAiT FRoM ThE oRigiN

PoRTRAiT TESTiMoNiAL oF A 4C uNiT

The 4C unit “Stockler 01” of Brazil was featured in the “4C Portrait from the origin” edition of July 2009. “Stockler 01” is an exporter unit of the Neumann Kaffee gruppe’s export company Stockler Comercial e Exportadora Ltda.

“it was a great pleasure for Stockler to receive the invitation to share our experience in the “Por-trait”, recalls osmar Moraes, the Stockler 4C unit representative.

“Believing that this media would disseminate Stockler 4C unit reality, we began the work, sorting pictures, resuming numbers, organizing information and trying to capture Stockler’s commitment to implementing the 4C Code of Conduct in words.

The outcome exceeded our expectations: Stockler 01 was congratulated on the Portrait by friends and associates, new opportunities to market 4C Compliant Coffee were built and the proof is that Stockler recently contracted a large coffee sale for 2010.”

Mr. osmar Moraes, Stockler 01

4C ASSOCIATION | Newsletter | January 2010 10

VERiFiCATioN MAP

Malawi

FACTS FRoM 4C LiCENSED uNiTS 10,224,557 Coffee bags (60kg each)

68,141 Business partners including producers

222,240 Workers (permanent and temporary)

368,205 Total growing area in hectares

DETAiLS oF 4C VERiFiCATioN 90 Total registered 4C units

4 Licenses issued under Rainforest

Alliance Benchmarking Scheme

3 4C units in need of follow-up verification

LEgEND oF ThE MAP 62 Licensed 4C units

5 4C units in process of verification

23 4C units in preparation for verification

Please note that one 4C Unit may have multiple types of verifications and licenses

… the difference, in commercial reporting, between “contracted” volumes of purchased coffee and “received” volumes of purchased coffee?

in the 4C Newsletter of November 2009, the term “commercial reporting” was explained. in line with the newly formulated strategic goals of transpa-rency and credibility of the 4C Association, there was a difference to this year’s commercial reporting compared to last year’s commercial reporting (the first 4C Coffee year 2008/2009). 4C Members were, and will in future be, requested to report on

those volumes of purchased coffee that had actually been “received” within the coffee year, i.e. volumes not only purchased but also physically received by the final buyer during the coffee year by the time of commercial reporting.

in comparison, “contracted” volumes may include volumes of 4C Compliant Coffee purchased by final buyers in a coffee year but also volumes contracted to be received at a later stage.

For future estimations, contracted volumes will also be reported by members but only for internal use.

… DiD you KNoW ?

4C ASSOCIATION | Newsletter | January 2010 11

4C Association | 4C Secretariat Adenauerallee 108 | 53113 Bonn | germany

PhoNE +49 (0)228 850 50 15 FAX +49 (0)228 850 50 20 EMAiL info@4c-coffeeassociation.org WEB www.4c-coffeeassociation.org

The 4C Association is legally registered with the Register of Com-

merce in geneva, Switzerland: Ch-660-2928006-4.

4C Association, c/o CR gestion & Fiduciaire SA, Route des Jeunes 9,

1227 Carouge-geneva, Switzerland

iMPRiNT

PuBLiShER4C Association | 4C Secretariat Adenauerallee 108 | 53113 Bonn | germany

EDiToRSLinda Besigiroha, Marie Stich

RESPoNSiBLE FoR CoNTENTChristian osterhaus

DESigNDavid Drexler Studios Munich, germany

PhoTogRAPhyTran Duc Tai: 1, 2, 3 Doan Trieu Nahn: 4 Webster Miyanda: 7 osmar Moraes: 8 Bukonzo Joint Cooperative: 6 4C Association: 4,5

TRADE FAiRS AND CoNFERENCES

4C Association at the 7th African Fine Coffee �Conference and Exhibition (EAFCA), Momba-sa, Kenya, February 10 – 13, 20104C Association at ICO World Coffee Confe- �rence, guatemala City, guatemala, February 26 – 28, 20104C Association at NCA’s 99th Annual Conven- �tion, California, uSA, March 18 – 20, 2010 Tea and Coffee World Cup Europe and gast- �Wien, Vienna, Austria, April 25 – 27, 2010

uPCoMiNg EVENTS

4C ACTiViTiES

gTZ AdapCC Workshop, Comitán, Mexico, �February 2, 20104C Regional Workshop, guatemala City, �guatemala, February 24, 2010Chapter day of the International Women´s �Coffee Alliance (IWCA), guatemala City, guatemala, February 25, 20104C Training-of-Trainers workshop, guatemala �City, guatemala, March 2 - 4, 20104C Training-of-Trainers Workshop, Ruiru, �Kenya, March 24 - 26, 2010

For more information and actual events please visit the 4C Website.