A new four-year FAIR COFFEE project launched in Brazil on May 27 is bringing the International Labour Organization (ILO) and JDE Peet’s into a formal partnership to tackle child and forced labour risks in the world’s largest coffee‑producing country.
According to DevDiscourse, the ambitious public‑private initiative will focus on strengthening labour rights and promoting decent work in Brazil’s coffee supply chain, with activities centred in the producing states of Bahia and Minas Gerais. The ILO has previously reported that Brazil is the world’s largest producer and exporter of coffee, employing around 300,000 workers directly in the sector, making any changes in labour practices there significant for the global industry.
The stakes are underscored by ILO data cited by Daily Coffee News, which show that coffee ranks fourth among all agricultural commodities associated with child labour worldwide, based on the number of countries affected. The same source reported that Brazilian authorities said they rescued more than 200 coffee workers from “slave‑like” conditions in 2024 alone.
In announcing a separate collaboration with Nestlé earlier this year, Dan Rees, Director of the ILO’s Priority Action Programme on Decent Work in Supply Chains, told Daily Coffee News that “decent work deficits in coffee supply chains persist, particularly among seasonal and migrant workers.” He added that “through this project, we aim to advance labour rights and promote decent work and contribute to more sustainable supply chains,” noting that coffee production sustains the livelihoods of approximately 20–25 million families globally.
The new FAIR COFFEE initiative adds to that effort by focusing specifically on Brazil. DevDiscourse reported that the four‑year project will run from 2026 to 2030 and involves research, fair recruitment pilots, and support for Human Rights Due Diligence in coffee production areas of Bahia and Minas Gerais. Earlier ILO coverage of occupational safety and health training in Minas Gerais highlighted comments from Juliana Brandão, National Project Officer at ILO Brazil, who said, “we are transforming knowledge into real change,” and described ongoing technical assistance to cooperatives and producers to create safer workplaces.
The partnership also comes as JDE Peet’s, now controlled by Keurig Dr Pepper, continues to position itself on broader sustainability issues. Daily Coffee News reported that JDE Peet’s currently purchases approximately 8% of the world’s green coffee from around 30 countries, while Global Coffee Report noted the company has reached 83.2% responsibly sourced green coffee as of 2024, with full coverage already claimed in Europe, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand.
JDE Peet’s has set additional targets through what it calls a Nature Transition Plan. As reported by Global Coffee Report and Daily Coffee News, those goals include achieving deforestation‑free coffee, expanding regenerative farming practices to an additional 200,000 hectares by 2030, and moving towards 100% responsibly sourced green coffee globally by 2028. During the plan’s launch, Laurent Sagarra, the company’s Vice President of Engagement, told Daily Coffee News, “Without nature there is no coffee,” and described the roadmap as “a call to action for the coffee industry to work together with governments, NGOs and coffee farmers to bend the curve on biodiversity loss and secure the future of coffee.”
Environmental scrutiny has intensified in parallel with new labour initiatives. A 2025 report from Coffee Watch and AidEnvironment alleged that six coffee farms in Brazil from which JDE Peet’s appears to be sourcing were linked to forest clearing after the cut‑off date set by the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), totaling 4,782 hectares cleared, including 299.5 hectares of native vegetation since 2022. According to the same report, JDE Peet’s responded that the plots could not be connected to its operations because the clearing took place before any possible coffee harvest from the areas in question.
To address deforestation‑related risks more broadly, JDE Peet’s and a group of major traders and roasters have backed the Coffee Canopy Partnership. As reported by Coffee Geography Magazine, the coalition – which includes Louis Dreyfus Company, Sucden, Neumann Kaffee Gruppe, Touton, Sucafina and Tchibo – plans to map coffee farms across producing landscapes using Airbus satellite technology, beginning with a 1.2 million square‑kilometre pilot across Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda.
At the Coffee Canopy Partnership launch, Sagarra said in Coffee Geography Magazine that “a sustainable coffee industry is one in which coffee production no longer contributes to forest loss,” emphasizing that the initiative is “not another certification scheme” but a sector‑led effort to strengthen collective action and “help keep forests vibrant and reduce the risk of coffee‑driven deforestation over time.”
FAIR COFFEE also aligns with a wider pattern of ILO‑brokered collaboration among governments, unions and employers in producing countries. In an ILO‑hosted tripartite dialogue on labour rights in the coffee sector, Juliet Kutyabwana, Secretary General of Uganda’s National Union of Cooperative Commercial Agricultural and Allied Workers Union, said that “a comprehensive cooperative model is the best pathway to achieve efficient effective and sustainable adherence to Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work in the coffee supply chain.” At the same event, Dr. Rodrigo Hugueney de Amaral Melo of Brazil’s National Coffee Commission stated that tripartism and social dialogue are “the most effective pathways” to improving safety and health in coffee, arguing that progress is only possible when “governments, employers, and workers” move together toward a common purpose.
