Coffee Watch Petitions US Customs And Border Protection To Block Import Of Coffee Connected To Brazilian Slave Labor – CoffeeTalk

Nonprofit Coffee Watch has filed a petition to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to stop the import of coffee produced with slave labor in Brazil. The petition relies on three Mongabay reports detailing human rights abuses from coffee production in Brazil. The first report, a 2018 one, details how Brazil labor ministry investigators rescued 33 coffee workers from two farms in Minas Gerais, where workers reported substandard housing, unpaid wages, and forced labor.

Another 2019 report found another Minas Gerais coffee farm, which also received a quality certification from Starbucks and Nestlé-controlled brand Nespresso, was found to employ forced labor. The coffee companies stopped purchasing from those farms when they were dirty listed. However, Higonnet believes that forced labor in Brazil is widespread and a business model for many companies.

Another 2021 report found that Cooxupé, a cooperative that supplies coffee beans to Starbucks and Nespresso, illegally charged coffee laborers for the use of equipment needed to harvest coffee. The petition asserts that Cooxupé bought coffee from several farms accused of producing coffee “wholly or in part” with forced labor and then sold that coffee to both Starbucks and Nestlé.

Starbucks communications representative Amber Stafford denied the claims, stating that Cooxupé sources coffee from more than 19,000 coffee farms and purchases coffee from a small fraction of those farms. Coffee Watch believes CBP will find the tip of the iceberg and move to end coffee imports from Brazil associated with forced labor.

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