Starbucks Reaffirms Ethical Sourcing Commitment Amid Lawsuit

Starbucks is widely considered to be at the helm of the world's largest coffee supply chain in the world, with around 40,000 stores across the globe.

It's also a leader in the ethical sourcing of coffee through a long-standing commitment to the wellbeing of farmers and workers, not to mention a pledge to farming communities through C.A.F.E. Practices.

However, a recent complaint related to its sourcing from a Brazilian cooperate brings that commitment into question – a matter Starbucks is not taking lightly.

What is the lawsuit?

As reported by a number of new outlets, Starbucks is facing a legal challenge from a labour rights group, which accuses the multinational of sourcing coffee from a major cooperative in Brazil whose member farms were cited for keeping workers in slave-like conditions.

International Rights Advocates filed the lawsuit in US District Court in Washington, D.C. on behalf of eight Brazilian coffee farm workers.

Michelle Burns, EVP, Global Coffee & Sustainability, reaffirmed Starbucks' commitment to ethical sourcing via a statement on the company's website: "For me, and I'm sure for many partners, this feels personal. And it is. Because we continually strive for our ethical sourcing programme to be best in class. And because the tradition of great coffee is what has set us apart for more than 50 years.

"Our commitment to build a more sustainable, equitable and resilient future for coffee is unwavering.

"The claims asserted in the complaint about Starbucks are without merit and we plan to vigorously defend our company. More specifically, the reporting mischaracterises and misunderstands Starbucks' coffee supply chain."

Starbucks' ethical sourcing framework

On its website, Starbucks outlines its efforts aimed at sourcing coffee in a sustainable and ethical fashion.

The organisation states that the cornerstone of its approach to buying coffee is the Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices, which was one of the coffee industry's first set of ethical sourcing standards when it launched in 2004.

Within this, there are four main pillars:

Economic transparency:

• Suppliers are required to submit evidence of payments made for coffee beans throughout the supply chain, including how much was paid directly to farmers for their coffee.
• Because of economic transparency, we know which farms the beans come from, the names of the farmers and the price paid to each of them for the coffee.

Social responsibility:

• Coffee farmers need to protect the rights of people working on their farms and must have measures in place that promote a safe, fair and humane work environment. This includes criteria around wages and benefits, hiring practices, hours of work, use of protective equipment, access to medical care and education.
• Permanent and temporary/seasonal workers must be paid at least the nationally or regionally established minimum legal wage on a regular basis.
• There is zero tolerance for any form of child labour.

Environmental leadership:

• With growing and processing coffee, the programme promotes sustainable agricultural practices including measures to protect water quality, improve soil health, preserve biodiversity, reduce agrochemical use and conserve water and energy.
• There is zero tolerance for conversion of natural forest to agricultural production since 2004 and use of prohibited pesticides.
• Following C.A.F.E. Practices Environmental Leadership measures, like maintaining shade trees and ground cover to prevent soil erosion during heavy rains, help farmers to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Quality:

• All coffee must pass our standards for high quality.
• We only source, roast and sell the highest quality arabica coffee.
• Starbucks pays premiums that support farmer profitability above commercial market price. These premiums are driven by the fact we buy premium quality coffee that is verified as ethically sourced by C.A.F.E. Practice standards. We also pay additional premiums to reward supply chains that reach the highest performance level and show continuous improvement in C.A.F.E. Practices.

Starbucks goes on to say that it has visibility into its coffee supply chain, allowing it to know which farms around the world are supplying its products. 

In this case, Starbucks recognises that it purchases coffee from a small fraction of the more-than-19,000 coffee farms that are members of the cooperative referenced in the complaint.

"That is because only a small fraction of those farms are Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices-verified and we only buy from farms that have this verification," the Starbucks website states. 

Starbucks adds that, over time and with intention, it has audited farms, assessed outcomes and continuously enhanced auditing standards and practices to be among "the toughest in the industry."

C.A.F.E. Practices is a verification programme, not a one-time certification system. Starbucks says that, when notified of alleged violations of its ethical sourcing standards, it takes immediate and appropriate action, which may include relationships with suppliers.

The company concludes: "We will continue to maintain our commitments in regions where we source coffee across the globe – even when it's hard – because it is the right thing to do."

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