Sustainability in Coffee
The coffee industry faces a range of environmental, social, and economic challenges, which are interconnected. This complexity demands collaboration to develop and implement new solutions. Each actor within the global coffee value chain plays a critical role by contributing expertise, skills, finance, innovation, and other resources to drive meaningful change. Ultimately, ensuring the sustainability of the coffee supply chain requires the engagement of all relevant stakeholders.
Economic Dimension
Economic instability remains a major concern in coffee production. Price volatility and fluctuating exchange rates create uncertainty, making it difficult to plan for the future. Despite temporary price spikes, the long-term decline in real coffee prices threatens the economic viability of farming. Additionally, limited access to market and product information prevents many producers from negotiating better prices or diversifying their income streams.
Rising living costs increase the financial pressure on farmers, especially as ageing coffee trees lead to declining yields. Land tenure uncertainty discourages investments in farm improvements, while weak farmer organisations provide inadequate services, reducing opportunities for collective bargaining and technical support. The absence of financial safety nets, such as insurance and hedging mechanisms, makes coffee farming even riskier. Ultimately, many farmers struggle to earn a living income, putting the sustainability of their livelihoods – and the coffee sector itself – at risk.
Social Dimension
Coffee-growing communities often face deep-rooted social vulnerabilities that impact long-term sustainable development and their overall well-being. Food insecurity remains a critical concern, exacerbated by unstable incomes and limited resources. Many farming families have to tackle the challenges of inadequate access to education and healthcare, making it difficult to secure a better future for the next generation.
Still today, child labour and forced labour persist in the global coffee supply chain, linked to underlying widespread poverty among small-holder coffee farmers and farm workers. Addressing these systemic issues requires a comprehensive approach that tackles their root causes rather than just their symptoms. Gender inequality can further widen social disparities. Women in coffee farming often face significant barriers to land ownership, financial resources, and decision-making power, limiting their ability to contribute fully to the coffee sector’s development; but women can also be drivers of change in the sector.
Another pressing challenge is the ageing farming population. With limited prospects for economic stability or insufficiently large farm sizes, many young people are leaving the coffee sector in search of better opportunities elsewhere. This migration weakens rural communities and threatens the long-term future of coffee production. Weak institutions and governance structures further complicate efforts to implement effective solutions that support coffee farmers and ensure the sector’s sustainability.
Environmental Dimension
Coffee production relies on environmental sustainability. Yet, productivity and quality of the harvested beans is increasingly threatened by ecological degradation, deforestation and biodiversity loss, which persist as forests are cleared for new plantations, disrupting ecosystems and weakening resilience to climate change. Meanwhile, soil erosion and degradation, often exacerbated by inappropriate use of agrochemicals that deplete soil fertility and harm biodiversity, further reduce farm productivity.
Water resources are also increasingly under pressure. Decreased water quality, inadequate wastewater management, and limited access to clean water affect both coffee farms and their surrounding communities. At the same time, evolving pests and diseases—exacerbated by the effects of climate change—pose significant risks to yields, requiring continuous adaptation by coffee producers.
Perhaps the most urgent challenge is climate change itself. Increased weather volatility, which impacts temperature patterns, rainfall distribution, and with it, coffee-growing conditions, especially for the more sensitive Arabica beans. As a result, many coffee-growing regions are becoming less suitable for cultivation. Farmers must adapt quickly to these changing conditions or face the risk of losing their crops altogether.
Traceability and Transparency
Traceability and transparency are essential for building trust and accountability among the various actors in the coffee value chain while ensuring compliance with increasingly stringent regulatory requirements for data and supply chain transparency across social, economic, and environmental dimensions. Documenting the flow of coffee from origin to consumer enables responsible trade and reinforces sustainability commitments. Various tools, including standardised reporting mechanisms and independent verification of supply chain practices, are available for use today.