UCC Coffee partners with IBM Blockchain powered ‘Farmer Connect‘ platform designed to boost traceability, efficiency and sustainability in the coffee and cocoa sectors. For a background in blockchain and the coffee industry see our earlier article.
UCC Coffee’s Orang Utan Coffee is continuing its mission to save the endangered Sumatran orangutans, as it becomes the UK’s first coffee brand that can be traced from bean-to-cup using the Farmer Connect’s ‘Thank My Farmer’ initiative.
The company’s goal is to sell enough Orang Utan Coffee to provide effective and long-lasting support for the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP) as well as for the coffee smallholders.
The launch of the blockchain traceable Orang Utan Coffee with farmer connect is not only a first for UCC Coffee in the UK, but UCC globally.
The ‘Thank My Farmer’ platform we have written about previously, is a smartphone app that connects consumers more directly with the farmers that grow Orang Utan Coffee.
Consumers can learn more about the Indonesian origin and the projects underway to support its coffee producing communities, simply by scanning the QR code on the packaging with their mobile phone.
The app also allows consumers to share social media content and support the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme, through optional donations via their credit card, Google Pay or Apple Pay.
Michael Chrisment, CEO of Farmer Connect said,
Our partnership with UCC, and the launch of Orang Utan Coffee in ‘Thank My Farmer’, comes at a time when consumers are increasingly taking a purpose-driven approach to their shopping patterns and looking to buy products that align with their values.
Research from the IBM Institute for Business Value has found that, for consumers who say sustainability is very important, 71% surveyed are willing to pay a premium for sustainable and environmentally responsible brands.
But they also want more access to more information, and to feel part of positive change at the very start of the supply chain of the coffee they drink.
They want to know their purchasing decisions can have an actual impact – on people, projects and the environment.
Thank My Farmer’ helps increase this total impact. If £1 from the supply chain is matched with £1 from the consumer, we have doubled our efforts to instigate real change on the ground.
Orang Utan Coffee is currently stocked in Waitrose and Ocado in the UK. The coffee is a 100% Arabica, single origin coffee, rated highly for its quality and flavour due to the unique climate of the Gayo Highlands in Central Aceh, Northern Sumatra where the beans are grown.
Orang Utan Coffee is on a mission to save the rapidly declining rainforest habitat of the Sumatran orangutan, where only 6,000 native primates remain in the wild.
For every kilo of green bean coffee purchased, coffee farmers receive €0.50 and a further €0.50 goes to the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme.
To date, this programme has safely rehabilitated over 200 orangutans and helped make ecological coffee farming a viable alternative for local farmers to protect the orangutans’ natural habitat.