With the growing focus on sustainable practices in the coffee industry, coffee traceability has emerged as an essential tool to ensure transparency and accountability throughout the production chain. This trend reflects the increasing demand for more conscious and informed consumption choices from both consumers and producers.
Traceability not only provides food safety and connects consumers to the history and practices of producers, but it also strengthens sustainability and environmental and social governance (ESG) in the sector. In a country like Brazil, with various regions holding geographical indications and designations of origin, traceability further highlights the uniqueness and quality of Brazilian coffee, adding value and trust to the product.
Why is traceability important?
Traceability provides buyers with transparency, a closer connection to the producer’s story, and sustainability, meeting the growing demand for informed and reliable choices.
For the producer, traceability is crucial for preserving and valuing their work, allowing them to prove good agricultural practices, tell their own story, and obtain certifications.
This action involves documenting the entire process, thus identifying each stage from production to commercialization. More than ever, traceability aims to offer a clear view of the production and processing journey, providing transparency and safety.
In a country with continental dimensions like Brazil, it is essential to highlight that traceability adds even more history to areas with Geographical Indication (GI) and Designation of Origin (DO). These two certifications guarantee the final consumer that they are buying a product with characteristics unique to those locations.
Currently, Brazil officially has 35 coffee-producing regions. Among them, 15 regions already offer coffee with controlled origin. Coffee is the product with the most GI indications in Brazil. As for Designation of Origin, it is proven in five regions: Cerrado Mineiro, Mantiqueira de Minas, Caparaó, Montanhas do Espírito Santo, and Matas de Rondônia.
How is traceability done?
It is important to emphasize that the traceability process is only possible through efficient management on farms. To ensure good results, the producer must keep records of data from all plots, which are specific areas within an agricultural property cultivated separately. They are generally defined based on different soil characteristics, type of cultivation, or management techniques used.
Experts also state that it is important for the producer to date the stages of the production process and identify who performed each task in the field.
Traceability also continues after the harvest. During the drying phase, it is necessary to record the drying time, processing, reprocessing, storage period, documenting the entire journey.
Traceability and ESG
Besides the factors already mentioned, traceability can also be an important indicator that a particular property is attentive to economic, social, and governance sustainability (ESG).
In the field, the answers are clear and evident. Maintaining environmental reserves, caring for the soil, and using water resources intelligently are measures that bring long-term benefits to the field and the workers.
Another important point of traceability is proving that workers have decent working conditions. In the case of Brazil, besides certifications, this is demonstrated through the Human Development Index (HDI), showing that in coffee-producing municipalities, it is considered high.
Certifications
Certification is the guarantee that the coffee was produced following good agricultural practices. At Atlantica, we have a working group dedicated to helping producers obtain certifications, contributing to a coffee cultivation that preserves the ecosystem as a whole.
We believe that organization, management, market opening, and improving the price paid to the producer for coffee are some of the advantages of being certified.
Traceability opens doors
Ensuring that the roaster and the final consumer have information that demonstrates the quality and origin of the product is, above all, a world of opportunities for the coffee grower.
In the field, this information helps the producer identify potential bottlenecks and adjust activities, ensuring the quality of the beverage and adding final value to the coffee.
In the business world, the coffee grower can position their coffee as a more competitive product and show that they are attentive to market demands and requirements.
For the final consumer, traceability brings a closer connection between those who produce and those who consume this coffee worldwide, besides ensuring practices and transparency throughout the process, factors that contribute to a more responsible coffee cultivation.