STARBUCKS, the world’s largest coffee-shop chain, has offered to help Jamaican growers to become more environmentally and socially responsible. Blue Mountain producers were invited to join in Starbucks’ CAFE (coffee and farmer equity) Practices programme last week by Anthony Carroll, the manager of coffee quality in the Seattle company’s supply chain operations division.

“It’s all about consistency and quality,” Carroll said after a tour of an Amber Estates plantation near the peak of the Blue Mountains. “We just want to elevate the entire industry.”

CAFE Practices is a set of buying guidelines developed by Starbucks, Conservation International and Scientific Certification Systems of California to ensure that coffee is grown in a responsible way, whether on a small holdings or corporate estates.

Starbucks says it aims to help farmers grow coffee in a way that is “better for both people and the planet”.

Applicants get points for their performance on different criteria, and are awarded preferred supplier status if they pass 60 per cent and strategic supplier status if they get an overall score above 80 per cent.

Starbucks reportedly offers enhanced pricing and contract terms to its preferred and strategic suppliers. The company would neither confirm nor deny this, however, saying that it does not comment on pricing conversations with suppliers.

Among other things, the programme calls for growers to provide safe, humane working conditions, protecting the rights of their employees and providing adequate living conditions. In particular, it insists on compliance with minimum wage laws and disapproves forced or child labour.

It also calls for farmers to conserve water and energy, to manage waste and protect water quality, to reduce the use of agrichemicals and to preserve biodiversity.

The company bought 84 per cent of its coffee (100 million kilograms) from CAFE Practices growers in 2010, up from 77 per cent in 2008. It is aiming to reach 100 per cent by 2015.

While most companies bemoan any increase in their input costs, Starbucks boasts that it spent US$1.56 ($134) per pound on average in 2010, up from US$1.47 the previous year.

In addition to the CAFE Practices programme, Starbucks also offers more concrete help, including an investment fund for farmers worth U$14.6 million last year and scheduled to grow to US$20 million by 2015.

It is also pilot testing carbon offset markets in Mexico and Indonesia that earn income for farmers while protecting the environment.

Starbucks also supports Conservation International’s Verde Ventures programme, which has invested US$18 million in small and medium-sized businesses that contribute to healthy ecosystems.

More than three-quarters of the fund is invested in coffee farms.