Cooxupé, a coffee cooperative from Minas Gerais, practices the ESG Agenda in its activities, directing the cooperative members’ coffee production to gain more competitiveness in the international market, impacting the preference of clients and consumers
Sustainability and, more recently, the ESG Agenda (social and environmental governance) are topics of fundamental importance that have been guiding guidelines and good agricultural practices in the global coffee industry. In Brazil, the reality of the Guaxupé Regional Coffee Growers Cooperative (Cooxupé) is already aligned with the demands for the production of an increasingly sustainable coffee that meets the demands of the international market.
Because of this, Cooxupé will be present at the 9th Coffee Dinner & Summit, organized by the Council of Brazilian Coffee Exporters (Cecafé), on May 25th and 26th, where the cooperative’s ESG manager, Alexandre Monteiro, will present the cooperative’s coffee production in the Sustainability Panel, which will address the topic “Sustainable Coffee Production ‘carbon negative’ in the face of global corporate goals: Brazil closer to the carbon market”.
Cooxupé currently has more than 18,000 cooperative families producing Arabica coffee in the Sul de Minas, Cerrado Mineiro, and Mogiana regions of the State of São Paulo and Matas de Minas. The cooperative has partnerships with companies and academic and research institutions to implement and also to prove how much its actions, as well as all its coffee production, meet sustainable demands, reflecting in certified and recognized coffees in the foreign market.
Cooxupé’s own initiatives, such as programs and protocols, are also already put into practice, allowing each member to improve sustainability, with the support of technical assistance in the field, every day, by Cooxupé’s agronomists and agricultural technicians.
The president of the cooperative, Carlos Augusto Rodrigues de Melo, highlights that the cooperative is always attentive so that the ESG Agenda is carefully fulfilled with the associated producers, so that the coffee produced increases the competitiveness of Cooxupé and its members, as well as increasingly develop all the regions where they operate.
“Our administration is fully focused on a solid future for both the cooperative and our members. The changes and the new market needs have been posing, within the companies, great challenges for us to walk towards a promising and absolutely strategic horizon. To this end, over the last few years we have already been performing ESG-based management, always committed to society and the environment, by means of governance”, he states.
Within this scenario, Cooxupé recently signed a partnership with the Yara company, becoming the first cooperative in Brazil to receive green fertilizer, an input produced with low carbon emissions, crucial to decarbonize the food chain and offer more sustainable food choices to consumers.
The signing reinforced Cooxupé’s commitment to bring innovations and solutions to the cooperative members so that the coffee production is increasingly sustainable. In addition, in recent years, the cooperative has received important awards and recognition, among them the leadership in the ESG ranking among Brazilian cooperatives and Gold in the SomosCoop Award – Excellence in Management.
COFFEE DINNER & SUMMIT
Organized by Cecafé, the event stands out as one of the main global forums of the coffee sector, bringing together, every two years, around a thousand people and leaders of all segments of Brazilian and world coffee growing to promote business prospection, create commercial opportunities, share experiences and network, bringing together agribusiness players and coffee lovers in a spacious and cozy environment.
Under the theme “Production Growth: Its Challenges and Opportunities in ESG Times”, the ninth edition of the Coffee Dinner & Summit aims to promote debate and reflection on the economic, climatic, regulatory, and logistical challenges, and especially on the sustainable initiatives developed by Brazil and other coffee nations, which respect the criteria of socio-environmental governance. Those interested can obtain more information at https://coffeedinner.com.br/.
ZERO CARBON EVENT
Honoring its pillar of action focused on socio-environmental responsibility, sustainability and food safety, Cecafé obtained the Green Seal from reforestation startup Ecooar Biodiversity to neutralize the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) with the 9th Coffee Dinner & Summit.
By calculating the carbon emissions generated during the two days of the event, the Council offset more than 2.5 tons of CO2 by planting native trees, contributing to the reforestation of Permanent Preservation Areas (APP) at Fazenda Santa Emília, a coffee producer in Garça (SP), where the regeneration of the environment and the preservation of spring waters benefit, directly and indirectly, about one million people in the 62 cities in the region.
INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT
O 9º Coffee Dinner & Summit has the national institutional support of the Brazilian Coffee Industry Association (ABIC), the Brazilian Soluble Coffee Industry Association (Abics), the Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association (BSCA), the Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock of Brazil (CNA), the National Coffee Council (CNC), and the Coffee Museum; the international support of the European Coffee Federation (ECF), the National Coffee Association (NCA), Paris Coffee Show, Rio Coffee Nation, and the Swiss Coffee Trade Association (SCTA); and the governmental support of the states of São Paulo and Espírito Santo.
ABOUT COOXUPÉ
Founded in 1932 as an agricultural credit cooperative, it was transformed into the Regional Coffee Growers Cooperative in Guaxupé in 1957, when it started receiving, processing, and trading coffee. Today, headquartered in Guaxupé (MG), Cooxupé has more than 60 years of activities focused on coffee and more than 90 years dedicated to the cooperative movement. It is a reference in Brazilian coffee growing and recognized worldwide as a company of credibility in the commercialization of quality Arabica coffee.
The cooperative is permanently investing in the modernization of its structure, which currently includes storage for more than 6 million bags of coffee, as well as laboratories, a distribution center, an export office in Santos (SP), and the Japy Industrial and Storage Complex. 80% of Cooxupé’s activities correspond to exports, taking the coffee produced by its more than 18 thousand members to clients in 50 countries, on five continents. The entire area in which the cooperative operates includes more than 300 municipalities in the states of Minas Gerais and São Paulo.
Another factor that demonstrates the strength of Cooxupé in the Brazilian cooperativism is that when considering, for example, the 2022 coffee receipt, according to the National Supply Company (Conab), the volume represented 15% of the national production of Arabica coffee and 23% of the production of this type of coffee in the state of Minas Gerais. Last year, the cooperative received more than 5 million bags of Arabica coffee.
ABOUT CECAFE
Founded in 1999, Cecafé actively represents and promotes the development of the coffee exporting sector at the national and international levels. The entity offers support to the segment’s operations through the exchange of data intelligence, strategic and legal actions, and citizenship and socio-environmental responsibility projects. Currently, it has 118 commercial companies, exporters, trading companies, cooperatives, industries and producers, which represent 96% of the national shipments and send, annually, the product to more than 120 destinations.
