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Climate change, deforestation, human rights abuses and persistent farmer poverty increasingly cut across both sectors. At their joint annual meeting in Vevey at the beginning of this month, approximately 200 representatives from business, government, civil society and research gathered to discuss how a shared approach might deliver more sustainable supply chains.
Yet beneath the optimistic tone of the event lies a more difficult question: after years of sustainability initiatives, certification schemes and millions of Swiss francs invested in projects, are the platforms beginning to tackle the root causes of inequality in global cocoa and coffee production, or are they mainly improving how those challenges are measured and managed?
The answer, according to the platforms’ own reports, is nuanced.
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A Common Agenda
Hosted by Nestlé, a founding member of both organisations, the joint meeting marked a symbolic shift towards greater collaboration between sectors that have traditionally operated separately despite facing remarkably similar pressures.