The declaration, signed by Melissa Duncan, executive director of Fairtrade International, and Jeroen Douglas, the Director General of ICA, has solidified the organisations’ commitment to work together to advance the principles of democracy, empowerment, economic prosperity and distribution, and the convergence of economic, social, and environmental components of development.

The announcement was made during ICA’s General Assembly held in New Delhi, India this week. Tone Cecilie Faugli, the CEO of Fairtrade Norway, together with Fairtrade Network of Asia & Pacific Producers CEO Erwin Novianto and Fairtrade certified cooperatives are participating in the event.

“We’re excited to launch this partnership with ICA as we embark on this shared opportunity to leverage our strengths and work together to build strong cooperatives that achieve better, fairer, and more dignified labour relations. Successful cooperatives are the lifeblood of Fairtrade and essential for sustainable global trade,” said Melissa Duncan, Fairtrade’s Executive Director.

“This declaration cements our joint efforts towards creating impactful change for cooperatives worldwide,” said Jeroen Douglas, Director General of ICA. “Together, ICA and Fairtrade International will drive forward initiatives that support cooperatives in their sustainable business case though fair pricing. Only a price tag on fair wages, clean water, gender inclusion and the pure air we breathe will transform our economy to the needs of communities.”

Fairtrade International and ICA, both EU Financial Framework Partnership Agencies, have had fruitful collaboration in the past on policy influencing, evidence gathering research, and the sharing of best practices focusing on the management of sustainable supply chains and people-centred business models. Advocacy work on cooperatives’ priorities include the EU Deforestation Regulation and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence directive. ICA and Fairtrade are also both members of the EU’s Global Gateway Dialogue Platform.

The partnership agreement will now facilitate closer co-operation between ICA and Fairtrade International on emerging areas of expertise needed, such as cooperative legal frameworks, agroecology, climate change, youth inclusion, gender equality, among others. It will contribute to strengthen both organisations’ work on promoting inclusive and sustainable cooperatives and their communities through wealth creation and redistribution, democracy, empowerment. It will also advance efforts towards an ever-increasing convergence between the economic, social, and environmental components of development.

Under the flagship of the UN International Year of Cooperatives, this partnership is expected to enable more cooperatives and their members to realise sustainable livelihoods, fulfil their potential, and decide on their future, given the growing risks and challenges they face.

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Decaf coffee is gaining popularity in global markets as more and more customers follow the current wellbeing trend, considering it as a healthy alternative to common coffee.

In contrast to Western markets that already have large numbers of decaf coffee consumers, the popularity of coffee without caffeine (or with a small content of it) is just gaining momentum in several emerging nations, many of which can provide significant growth opportunities for players operating in this market segment.

The existing big potential of the decaf coffee market is confirmed by research data. According to predictions of international research agency, Skyquest Technology, over the next seven years, the decaf coffee market will grow by six to seven percent annually, reaching USD $28.86 billion by 2030. By comparison, in 2022, this figure was $19.5 billion. The growth will be observed both in developed nations and emerging countries, where such growth rates are expected to be higher.

As for developed nations, it is expected the United States will be a major driver of growth for decaf coffee in years to come as the demand for coffee with less caffeine among local consumers remains high.

The National Coffee Association (NCA) of the USA reports that more consumers across the country are adopting healthier lifestyles, which may also be associated with increased coffee consumption, since scientific evidence continues to strengthen and shows that both decaffeinated and regular coffee are associated with decreased risk of multiple cancers and chronic diseases.

Speaking with T&CTJ, William “Bill” Murray, president and CEO of the NCA, said decaf coffee has already become an integral part of life for many Americans. “Like regular coffee, decaf is a mainstay in Americans’ lives, and we expect that to continue. Signs point to growth for decaf with Americans over the age of 40, and opportunities for decaf to adjust to consumers’ tastes and interests are abundant.”

Murray further noted that consumers are more interested in health and wellness than ever before and that “there is growing awareness that decaffeinated coffee is associated with decreased risk of multiple cancers and chronic diseases.”

In accordance with NCA’s Spring 2024 National Coffee Data Trends (NCDT) Report, seven percent of Americans had decaf coffee in the past day, and past-day decaf consumption is increasing among Americans ages 40-plus.

Per the NCDT report, past-day decaf consumption is highest for Americans in the 60-plus age group, ten percent of whom had decaf in the past day – up by 11 percent since July 2023. At the same time, past-day decaf consumption has also increased for Americans ages 40-59, with six percent drinking a decaf in the past day – up by 20 percent since July 2023.

Consumption grows in Scandinavia

In the European Union, the biggest growth in demand and consumption of decaf coffee has been observed in certain Nordic states – the countries which are known for their record coffee consumption in general.

One such country is Finland, where sales of decaf coffee have been rapidly growing since the beginning of the 2020s.

Löfbergs instant decaf coffee. Image: Löfbergs

Marleena Tanhuanpää, director of the Finnish Food and Drink Industries´ Federation, said that in recent years there has been a positive trend and continuous sales increase for decaffeinated coffee in Finland. “It is definitely trending at the moment as [there has been an increase in the number] of new locally roasted products, [along with] increased visibility and assortment availability, which is raising consumer interest [in decaf coffee].” Tanhuanpää further noted that decaf coffee innovations coming from local roasteries such as filter coffee with good taste profiles that meet the local needs and preferences are helping drive growth.

“The absolute user amount is still limited in the market but the potential for further growth is there,” Tanhuanpää explained, adding, “especially with the younger (under 35 years old) urban demographic, and women, in particular, are interested in decaffeinated coffee – they want to enjoy the taste of coffee, but regular coffee is not always the most suitable option.”

In neighbouring Denmark, the demand for decaf coffee also remains high, although the share of the segment in the overall Danish coffee market is small.

Henrik Frellsen, the chairman of the Danish Coffee Association and CEO of Frellsen Kaffe, one of the biggest local coffee producers, said decaf coffee currently makes up a small share of the coffee market in Nordic countries. “In Denmark, it accounts for less than one percent of the volume, [which is] constant and has historically remained at this level.”

He does not expect a sharp growth of the segment in years to come despite believing in its huge future potential. “We foresee no significant development at this level. In recent years, coffee has transitioned from a product perceived as less healthy to one that naturally fits into a healthy lifestyle. Therefore, caffeine no longer appears to be harmful,” Frellsen explained. “However, increased awareness of the importance of sleep for health pulls in the opposite direction. In Nordic food culture, there is a loyalty to pure raw materials. Hence, [those] with this concern would choose an alternative beverage later in the day rather than a decaf coffee.”

Some analysts report that the estimated potential of decaf coffee is too exaggerated and does not correspond to some current realities. Referencing the most recent edition of Euromonitor International’s Voice of the Consumer: Health and Nutrition Survey, Matthew Barry, insight manager, Food and Beverage at Euromonitor International, said that self-reported interest in drinking less caffeine or none at all reached a new record high, at 46 percent of respondents. “You could interpret that to mean we were at the verge of an explosion in decaf. After all, that is nearly half of adults in the world saying they want to drink less caffeine. But I don’t see things that way. The reality is that caffeine is just too important for people to get through their days so this represents an aspiration more than anything else. I think this signals that people recognise that they need to take actions to mitigate some of the negative side effects of excess caffeine consumption.”

Barry noted that the data absolutely shows there has been a real explosion of products with calming, relaxing, or sleep-promoting claims across food and beverage in recent years. “Essentially, rather than switch their morning coffee to decaf, consumers are sticking with the regular coffee and looking for something in the evening to calm them down and help them sleep. People want to have it all,” he said.

The decaf coffee market is also of great interest to the global majors, many of which have significantly strengthened their positions in it in recent years. For example, illycaffè, the Italian coffee producer, considers the decaf coffee segment a priority.

Francesco Bosso, chief commercial officer of illycaffè, said the company offers decaffeinated coffee in its range with all preparations to satisfy the taste of all consumers. In recent years, he said, the

illy’s low caffeine coffee, Idillyum. Image: illycaffè

demand for such coffee has significantly increased, noting that “usually, decaffeinated coffee is preferred by one out of four consumers and mainly as an alternative to coffee in the evening.” Bosso said that illy coffee is a blend composed of 100 percent Arabica beans of the best quality, which by its nature contains a lower amount of caffeine than Robusta coffee. “In addition, for consumers who are looking for a preparation with a very low caffeine content, we also propose Idillyum, a coffee composed only of the fine Arabica variety called Laurina, grown specifically for our company in El Salvador. This product naturally has a very low caffeine content, less than one percent (a third less than the classic Arabica varieties and less than half of Robusta).”

Bosso expects the demand for decaf coffee will continue to grow, while the growth of the segment will be comparable to the dynamics of the entire coffee market.

Regarding further market prospects, most of the interviewed analysts and producers believe the demand for decaf coffee will continue to grow in years to come, as more and more customers will position it as a heathy alternative to traditional coffee. That will be primarily observed in such countries as Russia, which has low decaf coffee consumption.

Tanhuanpää believes that decaffeinated coffee will continue to increase its share driven by the wellbeing trend that has for many years already been present in many food and drink categories, for example, driving growth of non-alcoholic beer. “The need for relaxation without compromising the enjoyment of coffee is one driver for decaffeinated coffee consumption,” she said. “And according to our research, the usage situations for decaf coffee can be varied, not only limited to evening use. One motivation can be the stomach friendliness of decaf coffee.”

• Eugene Gerden is an international freelance writer who specialises in covering the global coffee, tea and agricultural industries. He works for several industry titles and may be reached at gerden.eug@gmail.com.

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Coffee consumption has doubled over 30 years and continues to rise. Based on current projections, production needs to grow by 25 percent by 2030 in order to satisfy demand, whilst farmers in producing countries are increasingly unable to meet this by simply expanding acreage as competition for land-use intensifies.

Yet coffee remains under threat. Both Arabica and Robusta are particular about growing conditions, with each species growing only in a ”goldilocks zone” of temperature and rainfall. Consequently, coffee is sensitive to changes in conditions. With anthropogenic climate change now unavoidable, even moderate effects could have devastating impacts on many of the world’s current coffee plantations. Further complicating matters, climatic effects could further increase pressure on coffee plants by influencing the range of and damage cause by pests and pathogens including coffee berry borer and leaf rust.

Addressing these challenges requires extensive R&D – USD $452 million per year of it. But there is a potentially lucrative opportunity for innovative farmers, plantation operators, plant breeders, and biotechnologists who can provide solutions. The viability of these undertakings depends on the ability to secure a return on this investment for innovators and their investors. Much of this directly results from the strength of the solutions offered. Viable products must address the priorities of consumers (lower price and lower environmental impact, without compromise on quality or variety) and the needs of producers (climate resilience, pest immunity, and reliable yields). Equally important for securing a competitive edge is ensuring exclusivity around this advantage, to prevent “free riding” third parties undercutting the innovation.

Innovators will need to blend their technical, agricultural, and legal strategies to secure a lucrative market position, but the rewards for doing so will be substantial.

Good breeding

Breeding drought or pest resistance into coffee is an attractive prospect — as resistance is in effect always active, there is no need for the expensive and time-consuming application of applying protective agents at the right time. This also means that the advantages of resistant varieties can be felt by even small-scale producers who lack the access to capital required to invest in pesticides.

However, coffee breeding poses significant challenges. Traits can be introduced into plants by selecting natural mutations, but this is a lengthy and undirected process. Breeding is much more straightforward for traits already present in the gene pool, but unfortunately the Arabica gene pool in particular lacks this necessary diversity.

Wild coffee relatives could be a key tool in identifying and engineering improved coffee strains. There is significant early interest in harnessing the drought-resistance of Coffea liberica, Coffea racemosa, and Coffea stenophylla, and introducing these traits into high-value Arabica land races to produce new hybrid varieties that combine the hardiness of the wild relatives with the flavour profile and processability of elite Arabicas. Furthermore, many of these species grow in regions where common pests and disease are endemic, to which they have acquired immunity, and could also introduce these traits to the breeding pool.

Protecting innovation in plant breeding can be especially challenging. Whilst patent protection is often seen by investors as the gold standard of Intellectual Property (IP) rights, in many countries, plants as such produced through conventional breeding are exempt from patentability. Canny innovators can work around this carve-out to nevertheless create a valuable area of exclusivity. For example, methods and markers used to select for resistance traits, or cell-culture based breeding approaches, might be subject to valuable patent rights. These can be combined with plant variety rights (PVR), which prevent third parties from propagating specific protected varieties, to create a “double lock” for competitors attempting to engineer their own versions of the new strains.

Advances in gene editing

Although traditional breeding programmes can be lengthy, involving extensive crossing and selection between strains across multiple generations, this can be accelerated through precision genome editing technology. Unlike traditional transgenic techniques, where foreign DNA is inserted wholesale into the genome and are strictly regulated as genetically modified, gene editing uses precision tools to effectively ‘rewrite’ the plant’s native genetic code, changing the underlying genes and the traits they encode.

Advantageously, gene-edited crops have a favourable regulatory framework and are in certain circumstances treated the same as conventional plants in producer countries including Colombia and Brazil, as well as key consumer countries like the US, with the EU in the process of passing similar legislation in the near future. This is vital for consumer acceptance in markets where GMO remains a dirty word.

Long-term, gene editing may even allow coffee breeders to incorporate increasingly exotic traits into their beans. Characteristics such as caffeine content, levels of chlorogenic acids, aromatic profile, cherry ripening time, and bean size could all be manipulated to provide coffee that outperforms current varieties not only in yield but in quality and ease of processing, and which can demand higher prices as speciality products.

The future of crop protection

Given the need to increase yields by 2030, and the fact that even once new coffee varieties become available it will take three to four years for them to crop, there remains a need for new crop protection and enhancement products, at least in the interim.

Whilst chemical control agents are a core part of coffee farming, public opinion in the EU and the US is turning against their use. One alternative might be to harness the bacteria and fungi naturally associated with coffee plants. Much like in the human gut, a network of microbial species forms a symbiotic association with coffee plants, promoting growth and providing defence against pathogenic microbes. If these microorganisms could be isolated, they might provide effective live foliar sprays, or provide new antimicrobial compounds for development as agrichemicals.

This provides an opportunity for farmers as well as biotechnologists. The identification of beneficial microbes will require sampling from many farms around the world. Farmers who can negotiate royalties in exchange for these samples may find that mining microbial resources becomes a valuable income stream alongside selling raw beans.

Surveillance and enforcement

One of the biggest challenges for tech- and IP-heavy agribusiness is identifying infringement. Farms necessarily involve a loss of control over IP assets and, in many cases, it is simple to propagate plants or save seed to undercut the innovators. Finished products also undergo processing which make identifying traits challenging. This is even more acute in coffee, where the highly fragmented landscape of small producers across multiple countries, combined with the blending of products from multiple farms during the supply chain, means that, even when infringing products are identified, it is often impossible to determine which producer is at fault.

Technologies such as DNA fingerprinting might hold the answer. By identifying characteristic, detectable patterns in the genetic code of coffee beans from a particular strain, it is possible to identify whether beans from protected strains are present in a batch. Currently, this technology is limited by the ability to extract DNA from coffee in a high-throughput manner, but if this bottleneck could be overcome – for example, through cold-water extraction – then fingerprinting could not only be valuable for innovators seeking to identify infringers of their own IP but could provide a lucrative revenue stream if licensed out to third parties to aid in their sleuthing.

Indeed, fingerprinting might also be a valuable platform for tracing origin in the existing speciality coffee sector, with different markers than for the commodity market used to trace varieties and catch knock-offs.

Urgency of decision-making now

Production-side innovation in coffee has been sluggish and remains underinvested. However, as with vineyards in the late 20th century, embracing technology has the potential to improve yields, profits, and conditions for producers whilst maintaining quality.

Coffee’s status as the world’s beverage of choice seems, for now, unassailable, as its popularity only continues to grow. A lot of this success is built on the back of low prices and near-ubiquitous availability. This will be necessary for the world’s favourite drink to service ever-increasing demand in the face of challenges from climate shocks, land competition, or emergent disease and pests. Despite the early stage of development, decisions made now about how to protect, promote, position, and exploit this work will have long-lasting consequences on the landscape of coffee production for decades to come.

• Andrew Tindall is a patent attorney at Potter Clarkson, a London-based a firm that specialises in advising clients on food technologies.

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