Taylors of Harrogate: Climate change means future generations may not have same wide choice of coffee we do now

The reliance on suppliers from often remote locations around the globe has placed growing pressures on tea and coffee producers, who are battling to prevent the effects of global warming impinging on the quality of their products.

Taylors of Harrogate has launched a series of schemes to help minimise its impact on the environment, while also ensuring that its suppliers worldwide can become increasingly sustainable.

However, the company’s supply director, Keith Writer, told The Yorkshire Post that concerns still remained about the long-term future of the industry.

He said: “In many ways, it is the perfect storm which the coffee and tea industries are facing, as climate change is affecting the countries which are key to our product ranges.

“You cannot guarantee that the breadth and choice of coffee we have at the moment will be here for generations to come.

“It is becoming more and more of a challenge to make sure that we can continue to have sustainable supply chains, and there needs to be a long-term strategy to ensure that we do.”

Senior representatives from Taylors of Harrogate travelled to Glasgow last month to give delegates at the Cop26 climate summit an insight into the work that has been conducted in nations such as Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and India.

The independent tea and coffee business, which was established in 1886, was given a United Nations Global Climate Action Award for its work to curb carbon emissions and ensure that its suppliers across the globe have a more sustainable model of farming.

Among the initiatives undertaken by Taylors of Harrogate has been a tree-planting partnership, working with smallholder farmers in its tea supply chain in Kenya through the International Small Group and Tree Planting Programme.

Smallholders earn carbon pre-payments from trees which they plant, and the programme guarantees the farmers receive 70 per cent of any profits from the sale of carbon credits on the open market.

To date, the partnership has seen two million trees planted working with 7,500 farmers.

Taylors of Harrogate is also supporting projects to distribute fuel efficient cookstoves to farmers in Malawi, which use less fuel and reduce indoor air pollution.

But Mr Writer, who is a member of the World Coffee Research Board, admitted that more needs to be done to help stave off the impact of climate change.

He said coffee is particularly susceptible to changes in the environment, as it has a narrow band of genetic diversity.

Mr Writer added: “Coffee has evolved and been on a tremendous journey throughout the past 20 years, and there is an unprecedented breadth of tastes and varieties that are available now.

“But the tastes and quality we take for granted now will be put at risk if more is not done to combat climate change - as weather patterns become more erratic , it means that there is a greater risk to coffee of disease, drought and floods.

“Sustainability is not an issue that is discretionary, it needs to be meaningfully integrated into business models now.

“We have put in place longer-term contracts with our suppliers to make sure that they have a future, and it is not simply about short-term economic benefits.

"I remain stubbornly optimistic about the future of coffee and tea, but it requires even more collective action now.”

The surge in popularity of coffee since the turn of the century has seen the industry expand into a multi-billion pound trade.

The coffee shop market in the UK was estimated to be worth more than £15bn last year, with more than 30,000 outlets nationwide.

Data from the Allegra World Coffee Portal has revealed that sales at the UK’s 20,700 coffee shops grew 10 per cent in just 12 months to £7.9bn.

Meanwhile, retail experts from the Kantar group said this month that coffee purchases from shops and cafes in the UK had increased by 25 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter of this year, partly helped by the relaxation of coronavirus restrictions.