FDBusiness.com

Nestle has reaffirmed its commitment to support more than 20,000 coffee farmer households in Vietnam. The company will continue to develop sustainable coffee farming in the country in partnership with the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Measures include improving coffee productivity through better farming practices and distributing high-yield, disease-resistant plantlets over the next five years.

The initiative is backed by Nestle’s global Nescafe Plan which it extended toVietnamlast year. As part of the plan Nestle looks to source 30,000 tonnes of coffee from around 16,000 Vietnamese farmers annually, helping them obtain better prices and a steady income. This is part of an approach to business Nestlé calls ‘Creating Shared Value’, which aims to create value for the company’s shareholders at the same time as for those communities where it operates.

Last year Nestle announced an investment of $270 million in a new coffee factory in Dong Nai province. It will produce products under the Nescafe brand for both local consumption and export. The first phase will begin in November 2012 and looks set to create 170 new jobs once fully operational next year.