The Executive Director of the International Coffee Organization (ICO), Robério Oliveira Silva, has announced that 74 member states of the ICO and 26 coffee associations from around the world will join forces to celebrate the first official International Coffee Day on 1 October 2015.
The International Coffee Day is a celebration of the coffee sector’s diversity, quality and passion. It is an opportunity for coffee lovers to share their love of the beverage and support the millions of farmers whose livelihoods depend on the aromatic crop. An online campaign will be launched shortly to spread the word about the 1 October date and encourage coffee lovers to participate in the celebrations. The campaign includes a website to feature events and other online campaigns dedicated to International Coffee Day. The hashtag #InternationalCoffeeDay is being used on social media sites including Twitter and Facebook.
As part of the celebrations, the ICO has signed a memorandum of understanding with Oxfam to collaborate on a campaign focused around the concept of a ‘caffè sospeso’, an Italian tradition of paying for a second cup of coffee to be given to a person in need. The charity campaign entitled a ‘Caffè Sospeso against poverty’ will give coffee lovers around the world an opportunity to show solidarity with smallholder coffee farmers by donating the value of an additional cup of coffee to Oxfam’s work with such farmers via an online platform.
Many countries around the world celebrate their own national coffee days at various dates throughout the year. The first International Coffee Day coincides with the 115th session of the International Coffee Council (ICC) and the first Global Coffee Forum (GCF) which will take place during Expo Milan 2015.
