Nestlé Malaysia Kicks Off NESCAFÉ Grown Respectfully in Kelantan

 In line with Nestlé Malaysia’s aim to revive local coffee farming activities, the leading food and beverage Company inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the South Kelantan Development Authority (KESEDAR) to expand its NESCAFÉ Grown Respectfully programme to Gua Musang, Kelantan. This will be the third state in Malaysia for the NESCAFÉ Grown Respectfully programme, with existing sites in Gerik and Kuala Kangsar, Perak as well as Sik, Kedah. The expansion of this sustainable coffee farming initiative strengthens Nestlé Malaysia’s continued commitment to support local farming communities and improve their livelihoods, while adopting sustainable farming practices, namely regenerative agriculture. 

As part of the partnership, KESEDAR will be demarcating 60 hectares in Gua Musang for coffee planting under the NESCAFÉ Grown Respectfully programme. This includes the set-up of a 2.5-acre mother plant nursery and 10-acre demo farm. Using eight clones of high-quality Robusta coffee plants sourced from the NESCAFÉ Grown Respectfully programme in Kedah, Nestlé will provide 200 seedlings for the demo farm and 800 seedlings as mother plants for the nursery, which will be used as a self-sustaining source of planting materials across the 200-acre land.  

Through this collaboration, NESCAFÉ Grown Respectfully will support KESEDAR farmers throughout the coffee farming process by providing technical support alongside training and knowledge-sharing. This will enable the farmers to obtain good yields, while protecting ecosystems and the nutrients in the soil, leading to high quality beans and long-term continuity of their farming activities. 

With the 200 acres of coffee planting targeted to be completed by 2025 and the ongoing progressive expansion of the activity in Kedah, Nestlé Malaysia aspires to grow the harvest of coffee beans to some 1000 tonnes by end of the decade. This will create a sustained supply of green coffee beans that meet Nestlé’s stringent quality requirements, to be procured by NESCAFÉ from KESEDAR.

Mr. Juan Aranols, Chief Executive Officer, Nestlé (Malaysia) Berhad said, “One of the biggest threats from climate change are the impacts on food supply chains and food security. An important strategy to mitigate these effects is to increase the diversity and availability of local crops and the adoption of sustainable farming practices, namely regenerative agriculture.”

“Nestlé Malaysia has been engaging with local farmers since 1985 through our Farmer Connect programmes focused on chilli, rice and paddy farmers, and since 2019, coffee. As we join hands now with KESEDAR, we look forward to continue reviving the local coffee farming sector and putting Malaysia on the global coffee map. Our efforts here are also well-aligned with Nestlé’s global Nescafe Plan 2030, which aims to make coffee farming more sustainable and help coffee farmers transition to regenerative agriculture.”

Nestlé Malaysia aims to establish a solid foundation for coffee farming in Kelantan with KESEDAR, providing planting materials produced through NESCAFÉ Grown Respectfully to smallholder farmers. In this way, NESCAFÉ Grown Respectfully will be able to uplift local farming communities by providing an opportunity for trade diversification, to help strengthen their resilience. By developing a more diversified local farming ecosystem, Nestlé Malaysia will contribute to Malaysia’s food security while reducing the carbon footprint of the company’s operations. 

“Who knows, we may also develop a Nescafé Kopi Kelaté when these trees provide us their first harvest of coffee beans!” Aranols concluded. 

Present during the MoU Signing Ceremony, Dr. Shahrir bin Mohammad Zakey, General Manager, KESEDAR added, “We are excited to be working alongside Nestlé Malaysia to bring NESCAFÉ Grown Respectfully to Kelantan for the very first time. With the knowledge and expertise shared by Nestlé, we are confident that the establishment of coffee farming in Gua Musang will contribute positively to the economic and social development of Southern Kelantan.”

First launched in Malaysia in 2019, the NESCAFÉ Grown Respectfully programme has engaged more than 200 local farmers and raised more than 270,000 coffee seedlings for planting across approximately 150 acres of land in Kedah and Perak. To date, a total of 145 tonnes of local green coffee bean has been harvested and used to produce NESCAFÉ Classic Kopi Kedah, the company’s first ever NESCAFÉ products made with 100% local coffee beans.