Press Release: Nestlé empowers female coffee farmers in Kenya

Nestlé S.A. / Nestlé empowers female coffee farmers in Kenya . Processed and transmitted by Nasdaq OMX Corporate Solutions. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Nestlé is encouraging more female coffee growers in Kenya to take up leadership roles in farming cooperatives as part of its commitment to scaling up its business-related activities to promote gender equality and education for women and girls http://www.nestle.com/media/newsandfeatures/nestle-tells-the-united-nations-how-it-is-improving-the-health-of-women-and-children .

The company has launched a programme to train more than 1,000 women in better agricultural practices at the same time as developing their confidence and business skills.

Nestlé is working with nine coffee cooperatives with the aim of seeing women hold at least one third of all leadership positions within them by 2015.

"Women do more than two thirds of the work involved in coffee farming in Kenya," said Svetlana Obruchkova, Managing Director of Nestlé Kenya. "However, fewer than 5% of leadership roles in coffee cooperatives in the country are currently held by women.

"We are encouraging them to move into leadership roles, so they can be adequately represented in decision making," she continued.

"Through the programme, we have identified a selection of women from each co-op and trained them to become 'promoter farmers', to take the knowledge and skills they've acquired back to their communities to educate their peers."

Sustainable coffee

Nestlé is running the training programme in Kenya in collaboration with agricultural business services provider Coffee Management Services http://coffeemanagement.co.ke/About/about.html , as part of its http://www.nestle.com/csv/case-studies/AllCaseStudies/Nescafe-Plan-in-Kenya-2012 Nescafé Plan activities in the country.

The http://www.nestle.com/media/newsandfeatures/nescafe_plan Nescafé Plan - Nestlé's global initiative to create shared value within the coffee supply chain - includes measures such as increasing direct procurement from farmers, offering them free technical assistance and training in agricultural best practices, and providing high-yield coffee seedlings at subsidised rates.

The sustainably-farmed coffee sourced from the company's Nescafé Plan activities in Kenya is used to supply its Nescafé Dolce Gusto business.

Empowering women

Nestlé's training programme for female coffee farmers in Kenya is just one of a number of initiatives the company is involved in to help improve the lives of women in its supply chain http://www.nestle.com/csv/responsible-sourcing/women .

In Pakistan and India for example, the company supports female dairy farmers by employing veterinarians and agronomists to provide them with advice on various issues, irrespective of whether or not they are Nestlé suppliers.

This year, Nestlé signed up to the Women's Empowerment Principles http://www.nestle.com/csv/our-people/diversity#doing , a partnership initiative of UN Women http://www.unwomen.org/ and the UN Global Compact http://www.unglobalcompact.org/ that comprises seven steps business can take to advance gender equality and empower women.

The company also recently published an action plan (pdf, 412 Kb): http://www.nestle.com/asset-library/documents/creating-shared-value/responsible-sourcing/action-plan-women-in-cocoa-supply-chain.pdf that sets out in more detail what it will do in the short and medium term to strengthen its efforts to promote and support the lives of women in its cocoa supply chain.

Related information:

Nestlé Equatorial African Region

http://www.nestle-ea.com/en

Nescafé Dolce Gusto

http://www.dolce-gusto.com/Pages/default.aspx?redirect=no

Read more stories about Nestlé's work with coffee farmers:

Nespresso launches major new sustainability initiatives in Africa and Latin America

http://www.nestle.com/Media/NewsAndFeatures/Nespresso-sustainability-advisory-board

Nestlé to build Nescafé Coffee Centre in China

http://www.nestle.com/Media/NewsAndFeatures/Puer-coffee-institute

Coffee farmers in Nespresso sustainability programme enjoy better economic and social conditions, study finds

http://www.nestle.com/Media/NewsAndFeatures/Nespresso-Nescafe-Rainforest-Alliance

Media enquiries

Tel: +41 21 924 2200

Email: mediarelations@nestle.com

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Source: Nestlé S.A. via Globenewswire

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Nestlé S.A.

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   December 06, 2013 04:19 ET (09:19 GMT)- - 04 19 AM EST 12-06-13