A comparative analysis of the farm gate carbon footprint (in Kg CO2-e/Kg Green Coffee) between median and best yield performing quartile in 5 Sucafina supply chains.
- Rwanda Arabica
- Uganda Arabica
- Brazil Arabica
- Uganda Robusta
- Vietnam Robusta
Background
Sucafina is a global coffee merchant founded in 1977 and based in Geneva, Switzerland, with family tradition in commodity stretching back to 1905.
Sucafina established a global sustainability scheme, IMPACT Verified, and coffee farms are assessedagainstgood socio-environmental and agricultural practices (GAP). These assessments are used as a baseline in projects with farmers that for instance aim to increase their yields/ha, reduce their carbon footprint or increase their income from coffee.
The Carbon footprint of coffee farming represents the largest Scope 3 source of emissions of the final coffee product. Sucafina, in addition to its own SBTi commitment, is building capability in carbon to meet the growing needs of its global coffee partners.
Description
The farm gate carbon footprint of a Kg of green coffee is composed of emissions associated to land management and emissions associated to land use change. Sucafina has collected primary land management data from approximately 100-200 sample farms per Country or supply chain. The data has already been used to account for the average carbon footprint of the sample for each supply chain.
The carbon footprint (CF) betweenthe median and the highest yield quartile[WM1]still needs to be analyzed using the primary data and our carbon methodology tool.
Our hypothesis is that the average land management carbon footprint between the two CF values within a supply chain will vary depending on the levels of technification of the agricultural systems and their respective current yield levels as compared to other supply chains. Median current yields in Brazil or Vietnam for instance, may be 3-4 times higher than in Rwanda or Uganda, due to different levels of technification and input use in these different supply chains. Depending on these levels of technification, for some supply chains the high yields cohort might have a lower and, in other cases, a higher land management carbon footprint (in Kg CO2-e/Kg Green Coffee). Doing this analysis will help to evaluate the potential impact of projects that aim to increase coffee yields on the land management carbon footprint.
Finally, to account for a full carbon footprint of the green coffee, this study will perform a literature review to identify the most appropriateLand Use Change (LUC) and backgroundemissions factor for each area[WM2]and allocate (in Kg CO2-e/Kg of green coffee) these LUC emissions proportionally based on green coffee produced in a hectare.
The final values of land management carbon footprint and land use change carbon footprint will provide a full overview of the climate impact of adopting GAP and resulting higher yields in 5 major coffee Origins and supply chains.
Period/Start: as soon as possible within end of May 2025, with an estimated time of 3-6 months.
Required skills: understanding of carbon foot printing in agriculture, with focus on perennial crops, understanding of agricultural and ecological systems in tropical areas, MS Excel knowledge, attention to details and proactive and creative problem solving.
Mentoring: Sucafina will assign a member of the Global Sustainability Team to coordinate and support the internship.
In case of interest please contact: Marieke.sassen@wur.nl and kesia.lourenco@wur.nl
