Coffee made Happy: a local approach to an international future

Kenco is one member of a global powerhouse of brands that make up the Mondelez International family. Other household names in the stable include Cadbury, Jacobs, Toblerone, Kraft Philadelphia and Oreo, to name just a few. With such a strong global outlook, Mondelez makes a serious effort to think locally and where the coffee industry is concerned that translates into a local/global programme called Coffee Made Happy.

It’s an ambitious plan: Coffee Made Happy aims to create one million coffee entrepreneurs by 2020. Despite global consumption of coffee growing 2.5% every year since 2000, there’s a big challenge to the future of the coffee industry. Agricultural land suitable for coffee growing is increasingly under threat from other industries and urban development, complicated climatic conditions threaten growth and sustainability of small farm holdings and education and training are often missing links in many coffee regions due to economic and social issues.

The Coffee Made Happy programme is attempting to address this and is successful in a number of countries such as Peru, Vietnam, Honduras and Indonesia.

The mountains of Peru, for example, are home to some of the best Arabica coffee plantations in the world. However, the biggest threat to their continued success is an outbreak of a leaf disease called Roya. It looks like rust on the leaves and is particularly damaging to older trees, destroying their productivity.   Peru is facing the worst epidemic in the region since the mid-1970s and if not addressed it would have serious repercussions for the future of the coffee industry there.

In an attempt to address this, Coffee made Happy is growing 1.3 million coffee seedlings which farmers can use to replenish their plantations with healthy trees. They are also backing this with skills training to enable farmers to develop their capacity to strengthen and develop their farms.

In Vietnam Coffee Made Happy is working on multiple projects including working with programmes to upskill young farmers, projects to help replace plantation stock and training programmes to equip farmers with the skills and training needed to manage their own futures.

In Indonesia, the coffee industry is falling behind the development of other crucial industries such as cocoa oil, rubber and palm oil. To help stimulate the coffee industry and support its continued growth Coffee Made Happy have setup a training centre in south Sumatra to help farmers learn the farming and business skills they need to progress. 3,000 farmers will benefit from the training on offer to help build profitable businesses which will survive in the face of new competition.

Coffee Made Happy measures its success on many variables but, in particular, on developing three central elements: profitability, sustainability and respectability for the countries it works with. It exists to ensure opportunities are created and maintained for local and national communities in all its territories.

For more on the programme visit coffeemadehappy.com