Nespresso and TechnoServe, a development non-profit organization have announced a new partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to strengthen efforts to rebuild the coffee industry in the new country of South Sudan and improve coffee farmer livelihoods.
USAID will invest $3.18 million during three years in the project, which has already helped revive South Sudan’s coffee industry, diversify its export market and raise the household incomes of smallholder coffee farmers.
Since 2011, Nespresso and TechnoServe have worked directly with local farmers to revive high-quality coffee production in South Sudan, while developing commercial channels to enable its sale and export. Nespresso has already invested over $2.5 million in the project. The country’s coffee industry was decimated after years of civil war, and oil now comprises 99 percent of its exports.
“This new partnership with USAID will be instrumental to accelerate the progress Nespresso and TechnoServe have already made, working directly with South Sudanese farmers,” said Jean-Marc Duvoisin, CEO of Nestlé Nespresso. “This funding injection will allow us to scale up the project and help an even greater number of farmers grow and sell high quality coffee for international export at a higher price, thus creating a better quality of life for farmers and their families.”
USAID’s contribution will help expand the existing initiative to support a thriving and inclusive coffee sector in South Sudan by increasing scale and ensuring lasting impact. The funding injection will also allow the program to be extended to new communities, allowing more farmers in South Sudan to benefit from the revival of South Sudan’s coffee industry.
The initiative aims to triple coffee incomes and improve household resilience. By 2019, the program will have trained 1,500 South Sudanese farmers, of whom at least 25 percent will be women, and helped establish nine cooperative-owned wet mills.