In partnership with coffee farmers around the world, Starbucks is scaling solutions and adding two new coffee innovation farms located in Guatemala and Costa Rica, with future investments in farms in Africa and Asia
Starbucks announced the expansion of its collaborative coffee innovation network, connecting more farmers around the world with resources to protect the future of coffee. Building on the pioneering global agronomic innovation of Hacienda Alsacia , Starbucks’ first coffee farm, the company has added farms located in Guatemala and Costa Rica, with future investments in farms in Africa and Asia. Learnings from these farms are aimed at finding solutions to increase productivity on farms, support increased profitability for farmers and build climate resilience.
“ Starbucks works with more than 450,000 farms that grow the world’s highest-quality Arabica coffee,” said Michelle Burns, executive vice president of Global Coffee and Sustainability at Starbucks. “ Our promise to these farmers and their communities is that we will always work to ensure a sustainable future for coffee for all. Our solution is to develop on-farm interventions, share seeds, research and practices across the industry to help farmers mitigate the impacts of climate change.”
Starbucks purchases 3% of the world’s coffee, sourcing and roasting only Arabica coffee beans, a variety known for its rich, complex flavors. Climate change is impacting the availability of high-quality coffee around the world, and farming communities are feeling the impact on productivity, crop quality, and their livelihoods. Rising temperatures causing droughts, coffee leaf rust disease, and other related climate challenges are impacting the availability, quality, and taste of coffee as we know it today.
At Hacienda Alsacia, Starbucks is working to mitigate the impacts of climate change. The company has created best practices to make coffee farming more profitable, developed the next generation of quality, disease-resistant coffee, and shared these with farmers around the world. For example, since making a commitment to distribute 100 million coffee plants by 2025, Starbucks has distributed approximately 90 million climate-resilient coffee plants and more than 53 million coffee seedlings to farmers. More coffee innovation farms will enable more research in new geographies to better mitigate the threat of climate change.
The new farms in Costa Rica and Guatemala will study hybrid coffee varieties at different elevations and soil conditions, an important step in the research of new genetic material. The Costa Rica farm, located adjacent to Hacienda Alsacia, will also be designed to explore the use of mechanization, drones and other technologies to help support the labor availability challenges facing farmers in Latin America. In Guatemala, one of Starbucks’ most important origins, the Antigua Valley farm will replicate a smallholder farming project with conditions that reflect the challenges many farms face today.
With future farm investments also planned for Africa and Asia, Starbucks will have a coffee innovation network spanning the three major growing regions of the “Coffee Belt” – Latin America, Africa and Asia-Pacific – and will be equipped to study the diverse cultures, landscapes and farming methods that contribute to coffee’s flavor.
Starbucks’ innovation farm research will be expanded through the company’s Coffee Innovation Network, a multi-faceted approach to ensuring a sustainable future of coffee for all. In addition to the innovation farms, the network includes 10 Farmer Support Centers in coffee-growing regions around the world, where world-class agronomists collaborate directly with farmers on research and best practices, and 70 “model farms” across Starbucks’ supply chain, where solutions are put into action. The network’s focus on learning and innovation will continue with the Sustainability Learning and Innovation Lab at Hacienda Alsacia, which will open in December 2024.
“ Through these innovation farms, we will develop solutions that will not only improve coffee productivity and quality, but also empower farmers with the tools and knowledge they need to thrive in a changing world and challenging climate,” said Roberto Vega, Starbucks vice president of Global Coffee Agronomy, R&D and Sustainability. “ This work is done on behalf of coffee farmers around the world, with discoveries that can be applied to other sectors and crops that are also impacted by climate change.”
