It’s International Youth Day so why not take a moment to think about the young farmer who produced your morning cup of coffee? In particular we should consider the future of coffee if the current trend of young people abandoning life in the countryside for office jobs in the city continues.

The city is calling

The COSA works closely with stakeholders throughout the coffee supply chain to make coffee production more sustainable and address the many issues facing the industry.

Chief among these problems is that the average age of coffee farmers is increasing and currently stands at 56. As fashion-conscious millennials flaunt their coffee-consumption credentials on Instagram, a thousand miles away, their counterparts dream of better lives away from the coffee farm.

Harsh working conditions, price volatility, increasing threats posed by climate change, and a lack of readily available training are just some of the challenges that compel young people to migrate to the cities rather than continue in their parents’ footsteps.

However, with demand for coffee increasing and consumption predicted to reach a record 158 million bags in crop year 2017/18, we need young people more than ever to engage in coffee farming. How can we encourage them to stay on the coffee farms and not be drawn away by the bright lights of the city?

Connecting parents and children

“By building trust between the generations that make up the 25 million small holder families that produce 80% of coffee,” says Rubidia Escobar from the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Fair Trade Small Producers and Workers (CLAC). “Young people in our countries are stigmatised. The adults don’t always take into account their interests and needs.” CLAC is working to change this perception through its generational dialogues which provide a space for coffee producers of all ages to be heard and valued.

A similar approach has been adopted by Coffee Kids which place an emphasis on increasing the visibility of young people. Joanna Furgiuele explains, “the more we can create this visibility of youth in the community, the more adults recognise that they are interested in staying, that they do have good ideas and that they do have potential.”

The importance of valuing any young person’s contribution and creativity cannot be understated and this is no less true if we want coffee to have a sustainable future.

Connecting producers and consumers

Another way is to connect young coffee producers directly with the consumers. Many producers have little idea of what happens to their coffee cherries once they leave the farm. The world of cuppings, tasting notes and hipster coffee shops is often remote and inaccessible.

As 25-year-old Alejandra from Colombia’s AsoAnei Youth Program explains, “I thought coffee was just about the harvest. I didn’t know about cup quality, that there were flavours, that there’s a lot you can do with the coffee.” By teaching young people about the entire coffee value chain, both the AsoAnei and the Coffee Kids programs have revealed as accessible a different section of the coffee community that is not locked away in the virtual world of Instagram.

Once their creativity and interest is sparked, young producers are far more likely to stay in the family business, undertaking the necessary training and investment so as to ensure the future of high quality coffee that satisfies the consumers’ demands.

N.B.: This article only highlights a couple of aspects of what is a complicated issue and in which the low prices received by coffee producers are a huge contributing factor to young people seeking their livelihoods elsewhere.