In 2024, Nescafé sourced 32% of its coffee from producers who implement regenerative agriculture practices. This exceeds Nescafé’s 20% target for 2025, demonstrating the strong adoption of regenerative agriculture among coffee farmers, according to the latest Nescafé Plan 2030 Progress Report, released today.

Nescafé supports coffee farmers in the transition to practices such as optimized fertilization, ground cover, mulching and composting, with the aim of improving productivity and reducing costs. The adoption of these practices also contributes to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in coffee. In 2024, Nescafé Plan participants achieved a 20% to 40% reduction in GHG for every kg of green coffee.

In the past year, the challenges posed by climate change and adverse weather conditions have been particularly felt in the coffee sector in several producing countries. This has led to record global prices for both Arabica and Robusta and reduced coffee availability, raising the urgent need for more resilient coffee supply chains.

“Regenerative agriculture is at the heart of the Nescafé Plan and our efforts to strengthen resilience in our coffee supply chain,” said Axel Touzet , Head of Nestlé’s Strategic Coffee Brands Business Unit. “This third Progress Report shows that farmers are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of these practices, as confirmed by the increase in adoption rates. This result encourages us to continue the work we do with our partners, suppliers and farmers in the regions where we source coffee.”

As coffee trees age, they naturally become less productive and more susceptible to the effects of climate change, which can further reduce yields. Renewing and rejuvenating coffee farms is essential to maintaining productivity, and in 2024, the Nescafé Plan continued its long-standing coffee planting program by distributing 21 million coffees to support yield improvement and climate adaptation.

The Nescafé Plan currently covers over 400,000 hectares of coffee land. By 2024, over 1,400 Plan field staff and agronomists have trained more than 200,000 coffee farmers in 16 countries in regenerative agriculture. These experts are actively assisting farmers on issues such as soil erosion and runoff, organic matter management and optimised fertilisation.

In this year's Progress Report, Nescafé highlights the work done with two of its partners: the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (Giz) and TechnoServe.

Coffee production is a business and farmers need to make informed decisions about coffee varieties, farm investments and inputs. Nescafé is partnering with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (Giz) to improve farmers' entrepreneurial skills. Through the Coffee++ project, coffee farmers are trained in the Farmer Business School approach: they gain essential knowledge on how to improve yields and household incomes through diversification and regenerative farming methods, while also improving their business and financial literacy.

Encouraging data from a study by TechnoServe2 suggests that regenerative agriculture can significantly increase farmers’ income from coffee while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The study took a bottom-up approach, assuming constant parameters and presenting farm-level data and in-depth country-by-country analysis. This makes a compelling case for public and private investment: estimates suggest that an annual investment of $500-600 million in regenerative coffee agriculture could generate annual returns of over $2 billion in additional income for farmers, up to $2.6 billion in additional coffee exports, and up to 3.5 million tonnes of CO₂e avoided.

“We are proud to have collaborated with Nestlé and other partners on this study. Thanks to this effort, we have data that shows that regenerative agriculture is not only good for nature, but essential to the livelihoods of farmers and the future of the coffee industry,” said Paul Stewart , Global Coffee Director at TechnoServe. “We hope it inspires greater investment from governments and the private sector to scale up regenerative coffee production around the world.”

Equally significantly, the study suggests that significant additional benefits could be observed in the form of a multiplier effect on the local economy and positive environmental impacts on soil health, water conservation and biodiversity.