Nestlé commits $1B to saving coffee from the climate crisis as trouble brews for java crops
Love the smell of Nesquik in the morning… more like Nescafé. Nestlé (aka: the world’s largest food company) is famous for sweets like Kit Kats and Toll House cookies. But it’s also the world’s largest coffee company, with brands like Nescafé, Nespresso, and Starbucks’ at-home offerings (think: fridge Cold Brew). Now it wants to save the java beans:
- Nestlé committed $1B by 2030 to protect coffee from the climate crisis and extreme weather. The investment is meant to help its suppliers adopt more sustainable farming methods.
- Think: Replacing coffee trees with climate-change-resistant varieties and offering financial incentives to farmers who responsibly source beans. Nescafé has 500K farmers.
- Wild stat: 5.5K+ cups of Nescafé are sipped worldwide every second. Coffee and other non-milk bevs make up a third of Nestlé’s sales.
The world’s favorite jitter juice… is in trouble. Global coffee revenue is over $400B/year, but the market could lose steam. Coffee crops are grown near the drought- and hurricane-prone equatorial belt. Rising temps could reduce coffee-growing land area by as much as half by 2050. Meanwhile, severe frosts in Brazil already slashed last year’s crop.
- Caffeine crisis: The head of Nestlé’s coffee biz said, “We will not have viable coffee farms in 20 or 30 years if we don’t take action now.”
- With its $1B investment, Nescafé aims to have half of its coffee farmed with regenerative methods by 2030.
Coffee’s the tip of the iceberg… It isn’t the only crop facing climate threats. Corn-crop yields may decline by nearly 25% by this century, NASA says. Wine, almonds, peaches, and rice are also being affected. Companies may have to step in where governments have been slow to act to protect their products — and the world’s food supply.