EU Ambassadors visit coffee farm in Chiapas, Mexico
Ambassadors of 11 EU Member States and the EU Delegation based in Mexico visited a coffee farm in San Fernando-Chiapas where they met with small-scale producers and witnessed EU funded OSH training activities being implemented.
6 December 2021
On November 12, the ambassador to Mexico, Gautier Mignot, accompanied by the ambassadors and representatives of Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden visited a coffee farm in San Fernando-Chiapas where Occupational Safety and Health (OCH) training activities were being implemented.
The President of the Mexican Association of the coffee production chain AMECAFE, the Secretary of Agriculture, the general coordinator of Agriculture in Mexico, and the Director of the ILO Office in Mexico Office, Pedro Américo Furtado de Oliveira, also participated in the visit.
Mexico is one of the three Latin American countries, next to Columbia and Honduras where the International Labour Organization, through the Vision Zero Fund (VZF), and with the financial contribution of the European Commission, seeks to reduce work-related illnesses and accidents in the coffee value chains to promote decent work.
Latin America is a large source of coffee production globally. Mexico is among the ten leading coffee producers and exporters in the world. However, there is a wide range of risks for farmers and workers when producing coffee. Farmers are often unaware of the OSH risks and lack the knowledge to prevent and mitigate work-related illnesses and accidents. Besides impacting on the safety and health, OSH risks also impact business profitability as more consumers are becoming increasingly concerned with the social and environmental conditions of coffee production.
The VZF project "Safety and health at work in coffee value chains" developed a set of guidelines for the agricultural sector which was distributed throughout the region. Similarly, the VZF also created guidelines and provided online trainings in Mexico on the prevention of COVID-19 infection in each stage of the agriculture and coffee supply chains. These tools are being adapted for the forthcoming global toolkit on OSH in the coffee supply chain.
In his welcoming speech, Santiago Argüello Campos, the head of the General Coordination of Agriculture of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that “the collaboration led to the development of a Work Improvement in Neighbourhood Development (WIND) training manual to help small farmers and their families improve safety and health at work and in their daily lives, thereby contributing to the care of the most vulnerable populations”. The project also piloted the WIND workshop model for coffee producers and technicians, involving more than 450 farmers from Chiapas, Oaxaca and Veracruz, and produced a final document entitled "Incentives and constraints for the improvement of occupational safety and health in Mexico's global coffee value chain," he noted.
The Ambassador of the European Union to Mexico, Gautier Mignot, stressed on the importance of this project to meet consumer demand for quality, healthy products, free of deforestation, produced in healthy and salubrious spaces where workers can work without putting their health and physical integrity at risk. All these elements can be seen in the coffee of the San Fernando community and others in Chiapas, he added.
He also highlighted the Café Chiapas denomination of origin, which takes into account all these physical attributes of quality, integral health and care for the environment.
He confirmed that the European Union market values all the efforts of sustainable production and rewards products with these characteristics with price premiums of up to 15 percent.
The event was followed by a cupping of specialty coffee from the Union of Ejidos and Communities of San Fernando, an aromatic coffee that was present at COP26 as a sample of a high quality, environmentally friendly coffee that contributes to mitigating the effects of climate change.
Watch video on the EU ambassadors visit a safe and healthy coffee farm in Chiapas-Mexico
The President of the Mexican Association of the coffee production chain AMECAFE, the Secretary of Agriculture, the general coordinator of Agriculture in Mexico, and the Director of the ILO Office in Mexico Office, Pedro Américo Furtado de Oliveira, also participated in the visit.
Mexico is one of the three Latin American countries, next to Columbia and Honduras where the International Labour Organization, through the Vision Zero Fund (VZF), and with the financial contribution of the European Commission, seeks to reduce work-related illnesses and accidents in the coffee value chains to promote decent work.
Latin America is a large source of coffee production globally. Mexico is among the ten leading coffee producers and exporters in the world. However, there is a wide range of risks for farmers and workers when producing coffee. Farmers are often unaware of the OSH risks and lack the knowledge to prevent and mitigate work-related illnesses and accidents. Besides impacting on the safety and health, OSH risks also impact business profitability as more consumers are becoming increasingly concerned with the social and environmental conditions of coffee production.
The VZF project "Safety and health at work in coffee value chains" developed a set of guidelines for the agricultural sector which was distributed throughout the region. Similarly, the VZF also created guidelines and provided online trainings in Mexico on the prevention of COVID-19 infection in each stage of the agriculture and coffee supply chains. These tools are being adapted for the forthcoming global toolkit on OSH in the coffee supply chain.
In his welcoming speech, Santiago Argüello Campos, the head of the General Coordination of Agriculture of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that “the collaboration led to the development of a Work Improvement in Neighbourhood Development (WIND) training manual to help small farmers and their families improve safety and health at work and in their daily lives, thereby contributing to the care of the most vulnerable populations”. The project also piloted the WIND workshop model for coffee producers and technicians, involving more than 450 farmers from Chiapas, Oaxaca and Veracruz, and produced a final document entitled "Incentives and constraints for the improvement of occupational safety and health in Mexico's global coffee value chain," he noted.
The Ambassador of the European Union to Mexico, Gautier Mignot, stressed on the importance of this project to meet consumer demand for quality, healthy products, free of deforestation, produced in healthy and salubrious spaces where workers can work without putting their health and physical integrity at risk. All these elements can be seen in the coffee of the San Fernando community and others in Chiapas, he added.
He also highlighted the Café Chiapas denomination of origin, which takes into account all these physical attributes of quality, integral health and care for the environment.
He confirmed that the European Union market values all the efforts of sustainable production and rewards products with these characteristics with price premiums of up to 15 percent.
The event was followed by a cupping of specialty coffee from the Union of Ejidos and Communities of San Fernando, an aromatic coffee that was present at COP26 as a sample of a high quality, environmentally friendly coffee that contributes to mitigating the effects of climate change.
Watch video on the EU ambassadors visit a safe and healthy coffee farm in Chiapas-Mexico