CmiA – Cotton Made in Africa

Enhancing the competitiveness of African cotton

Cotton “made in Africa” has relatively long fibres, and is picked by hand – it is a high quality material. If the social and environmental conditions of growing are improved, that also increases the attractiveness of this raw material, which is already of high quality. The know-how of the project partners makes it possible to optimise management practices right from the start of growing, and in the first stages of processing.

Starbucks C.A.F.E and COCOA Practices

Starbucks C.A.F.E (Coffee & Farmer Equity) and COCOA Practices verification schemes are programs that sustainably address social and environmental needs of all the participants in a given Coffee & Cocoa supply chain from the producer to the end consumer. Both programs are designed to ensure continuous supply of ethically-sourced produce while contributing positively to farming communities through payment of premiums.

The programs focus on evaluation criteria that define social, environmental, economic, and quality aspects of growing, processing, and selling of the end products to Starbucks. CAFÉ & COCOA Practices verification process follows guidelines stipulated in the current version of CAFÉ Practices Verifier and Inspector Operations Manual available here, and COCOA Practices Verifier and Inspector Operations Manual available here. Please take time to study them carefully.

Application

CAFÉ & COCOA Practices applications are done directly to Starbucks. Starbucks has set forth pre requisite requirements for all its coffee suppliers. For more information on the application process, please contact Starbucks via: cafeprac@starbucks.com.

Pre-onsite planning

For coffee and cocoa suppliers wishing to become verified for CAFÉ or COCOA practices, prior to starting verification, they should first:

• Inform Starbucks that they plan to be verified;
• Confirm receipt of correct application ID and security code from Starbucks; this is to be forwarded to the verifier to commence verification planning.
• Confirm that in-harvest conditions will be met at the time of inspection and complete the CAFÉ & COCOA Practices pre-onsite planning form available here. Please send back this form to: applications@africertlimited.co.ke cc; cafepractices@africertlimited.co.ke
• Ensure that all required documentation is available during the verification exercise. The type of documents required for each indicator to be evaluated within the supply chain can be found in the CAFÉ & COCOA Practices List of Indicators that require documentation.

On-site verification activities

Verification activities shall proceed based on the verification and inspection plans sent to you. Verification of each entity within the supply chain will commence with an opening meeting and end with a closing meeting. It is in these meetings that detailed information shall be communicated to you regarding the kind of support that will be required of you, summary of verification findings including any Zero Tolerance Non conformity identified within the entity, pending documents presentation and the next steps of the verification process.

Reporting

After verification field activities’ completion, a report shall be generated by the inspectors for each entity visited in the supply chain and submitted to the client for review. This shall precede internal review of the reports by the verifier. In the event of no Zero Tolerance (ZT) Non conformities identified within any of the entities in the supply chain, AfriCert shall submit draft verification reports the client for review and approval prior to submission of the reports to Starbucks through the Verifier Reporting System (VRS).