Coffee Innovation Fund

How can companies and cooperatives foster sustainability in the coffee sector? The Coffee Innovation Fund, financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), supports pioneering projects making coffee more profitable for farmers. The projects take various approaches to improve the production, processing or marketing of coffee beans and increase local value creation.

Coffee grown in bunk beds, blockchain-based transparency mechanisms, coffee paired with eco-tourism – 21 projects from four countries made the race in the idea competition the fund organised. Since 2019 and continuing through 2020, they have been receiving financial support, advice and access to a broad network in the coffee sector.

The fund’s support enables start-ups and cooperatives to test new ideas and gain experiences. Other stakeholders, too, can profit from these outcomes – which will be shared at exchange meetings and a in toolkit compiling the different solutions implemented by the projects. Innovations from Ethiopia, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Vietnam will thereby be spread all over the coffee-producing world.

The Coffee Innovation Fund is implemented by the programme for sustainable agricultural supply chains and standards of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). GIZ partnered with the companies to assist in the design and implementation of the projects.