FACING HUNGER

Hunger, however, continues to affect millions of people, including children, in every part of the world, every single day.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations:

While some regions in Asia and Latin America have seen a decline in hunger levels, the combined impacts of climate change, ongoing conflicts, economic fallout, and other contributing factors have prevented any significant progress toward achieving our goal, keeping us far behind our target of reaching zero hunger by 2030.

As a result, the overall hunger level has remained relatively unchanged since 2021, with rising hunger levels in Western Asia, the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

In Africa, a significantly higher proportion of its population experiences hunger than in other regions. Nearly 20% of the African population faces hunger, affecting one in five people — more than twice the global average.

Despite slight improvements, hunger is still prevalent in Latin America and the Caribbean, where 6.5% of the population, equivalent to approximately 43.2 million people, still endure the challenges of hunger.

Similarly, in Asia, millions continue to experience severe food insecurity, with as many as 370 million undernourished individuals.

Despite significant progress made, millions still suffer from hunger, and a significant portion of them are smallholder farmers. Equipping them with the right tools can empower them to play a key role in reshaping our food systems and enhancing accessibility.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Poverty is a result of various factors, including but not limited to unemployment, social issues, and vulnerability to disasters and circumstances that affect productivity. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a significant setback to the momentum of reducing poverty. According to the United Nations, around 575 million people worldwide could experience extreme poverty by 2030 if these patterns persist.

Smallholder farmers are among the vulnerable population, especially in emerging economies like the Philippines. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the poverty incidence of farmers in the country, while improving throughout the years, remains at 30%. Filipino farmers also face further challenges, from climate change and natural disasters to lack of capital, post-harvest facilities, and innovation.

With history as inspiration, Kalsada Coffee seeks to bring back the glory of Philippine coffee. This endeavor, however, has its many challenges. With decreasing prices and only one annual harvest season, coffee can be a financial risk for local farmers compared to other competitive cash crops and vegetables.

Despite this fact, Carmel Laurino and Tere Domine founded Kalsada Coffee and introduced farmers to proper coffee processing and storage methods, such as using GrainPro Hermetic Bags. Continuously working and learning together, Kalsada not only helped the farmers become experts in their field and provide stability but also formed a partnership that goes beyond business — A family.

Kalsada Coffee now works with 200 farmers from four locations around the Philippines and has earned its place amongst the best, with US-based Blue Bottle Coffee releasing its first Philippine set last February 2023. In the future, Kalsada Coffee also hopes to inspire younger members to continue on this coffee journey.

I think the more pressing goal for Kalsada is to encourage a lot of younger farmers to stay in the agriculture business and see that there's really a future and profitability in farming, especially in coffee.

Discover their story: Rekindling a Community’s Passion for Philippine Coffee

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Since 2015, the number of people experiencing hunger and food insecurity has been rising as the pandemic, climate change, inequalities, and conflicts worsen the situation. Achieving zero hunger requires urgent coordinated action and policy solutions to transform food systems and mitigate the impact of the challenges, more so with more than 600 million people worldwide projected to still face hunger in 2030.

Numbers speak volumes, and Food 4 Farmers works to identify the root causes of this problem and develop solutions to address food security in Latin American coffee-growing communities. As a mission-based organization, Food 4 Farmers centers their approach on sustainable partnerships with organizations and local cooperatives, aiming to give farmers more choices and control over how they want to become more food-secured.

Food 4 Farmers and GrainPro have formed a strategic partnership since 2021. With Food 4 Farmers’ focus on pre-harvest and GrainPro’s support and post-harvest solutions, this collaboration hopes to bring more opportunities to rural communities so smallholder farmers can feed the world — and their families.

Partnering with GrainPro, whose mission is so closely aligned with our own, and whose work on the ground has already reached a huge number of farming families, is an incredibly exciting prospect for Food 4 Farmers.

Discover their story: Strengthening The Fight Against Hunger in Latin American Coffee Communities

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Gender equality is a fundamental human right and a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world. Even as the world is not on track to achieve gender equality by 2030, there has been progress over the last decades.

A global organization with sustainability at its core, GrainPro believes that the company's continuous growth is possible by empowering all employees with equal opportunities for growth, development, and success, regardless of gender, race, and culture,

GrainPro currently employs capable and hardworking individuals from various cultures and countries across the globe. The company also welcomes everyone who wants to work hand-in-hand to achieve a more food-secure tomorrow.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states that over a century of unsustainable human activities have caused global warming of 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels. With the rising sea levels threatening Pacific islands to extreme droughts affecting many emerging regions in Africa, vulnerable countries are more often disproportionately affected despite lesser contributions to climate change.

The impacts of climate change have led to an increased dialogue on the need for sustainable food systems leading to food being a key tenet in the recently concluded COP28 as well as the WEF 24. GrainPro is contributing meaningfully to this discourse by building smallholder farmer resilience to withstand climate change shock and thereby reducing incidences of extreme hunger when they can store food safely for consumption.

With the world experiencing more frequent and severe weather conditions, it is crucial to go beyond plans and take urgent and transformative actions toward climate-resilient development. Climate action is integral for the survival of many countries, such as Colombia — wherein climate change can severely impact 14% of the GDP corresponding to agriculture.

A certified B-corporation that started in Bogotá, Fibtex provides packaging solutions tailored to customers’ needs. This mission led to a long-term collaboration with GrainPro, making hermetic solutions more accessible to local smallholder farmers and agribusinesses for cocoa and coffee.

Fibtex also works to positively and sustainably impact nature alongside giving farmers post-harvest security. Working mainly with non-biodegradable products, a recycling program was developed to collect used solutions for reprocessing and reuse. This program has since collected 35 metric tons and produced food-grade big bags made of 50% recycled materials, supporting a more circular economy.

Going further with sustainability efforts, Fibtex aims to neutralize its emissions and be carbon-positive by 2030. The company launched its reforestation program in 2020 and has already planted 15,000 native trees in the reserves of El Ampara.

We measure our social and environmental impact and commit ourselves personally, institutionally, and legally to make decisions considering the long-term consequences of our activities on the community and the environment.

Discover their story: Building Up a Sustainable Enterprise for a Hopeful Future

ONWARDS, TO A MORE SUSTAINABLE
AND FOODFUL TOMORROW

GrainPro’s future actions are all guided by its dedication to sustainability. From material development to logistical processes, GrainPro is and will continue to be guided by 5 Core C’s:

• Collection & Recycling

  The aim is to set-up collection and recycling points in every country we work in. This is being started and will continue to be one of GrainPro’s priorities.

• Compostability

  By developing compostable solutions, GrainPro can promote environmentally friendly solutions without compromising the quality of stored commodities.

• Create

  Creating new solutions or redesigning existing ones to more sustainable versions is an important future step for GrainPro.

• Circularity

  Closing the loop by strengthening the traceability and reusability of GrainPro solutions can help reduce environmental impact.

• Carbon Footprint

  GrainPro is focused on gathering data related to its carbon footprint so that effective endeavors to reduce and offset carbon emissions can be done.

These 5 Core C’s are also strengthened by 3 Support C’s:

• Climate-smart
  Having climate-smart solutions and manufacturing processes can help mitigate the effects of climate change on communities as well as GrainPro itself.
• Communication
  GrainPro always strives to be transparent in its communications and reachable through all its platforms.
• Certification
  GrainPro has taken the necessary steps to secure certification from trustworthy bodies that can help showcase its dedication to sustainability now and in the future.