The Historic Merger: Two Giants Unite
In June 2017, the Rainforest Alliance and UTZ announced the intention to merge, and in January 2018, the merger was legally closed and completed. The merged organization goes by the name Rainforest Alliance. This union brought together two of coffee’s most influential sustainability certification programs, fundamentally reshaping the landscape of ethical coffee sourcing.
The Rainforest Alliance was founded in 1987 by Daniel Katz, an American environmental activist, while UTZ was launched in 2002 as Utz Kapeh, meaning ‘Good Coffee’ in the Mayan language Quiché. It was founded by Nick Bocklandt, a Belgian-Guatemalan coffee grower, and Ward de Groote, a Dutch coffee roaster, with the goal of implementing sustainability on a large scale in the worldwide market. The merger created the world’s largest sustainable agriculture certification program, with UTZ becoming the world’s largest certification program for coffee and cocoa prior to the combination.
Pre-Merger Philosophies and Approaches
The two organizations operated with distinct but complementary philosophies. UTZ’s emphasis was on transparency and traceability in the supply chain and efficient farm management. The latter includes good agricultural practices such as soil erosion prevention, minimizing water use and pollution, responsible use of chemicals, and habitat protection.
UTZ does not require shade trees or organic production of coffee. Overall, the certification process is less strict and allows many growers to be certified who might not otherwise qualify for other certifications.
Rainforest Alliance took a broader approach, with certification not exclusively an environmental certification, it covers a number of ecological issues as well as community relations and fair treatment of workers. Certification is awarded based on a score for meeting a minimum number from an array of criteria. Neither certification guaranteed minimum prices, instead the focus on good agricultural practices in the UTZ program is intended to enable farmers to increase the quantity and quality of their yield, and thus to increase their income.
The 2020 Standard: A New Unified Framework
The Rainforest Alliance released a new certification standard in 2020, building upon the previous Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Agriculture Standard and the UTZ Certification Standard. The two previous certification programs operated in parallel with farms as either Rainforest Alliance or UTZ certified until they transitioned to the new 2020 standard. This new framework represented a fundamental shift in how sustainability certification operates.
“The new certification program incorporates new tools to support farmers and companies to set clear sustainability targets and focus investments to improve positive impacts for people and nature,” said Ruth Rennie, director of standards and assurance at the Rainforest Alliance. “These tools and innovations will support more resilient agriculture and help make responsible business the new normal.”
The updated standard, version 1.4, reduces the number of requirements for certificate holders from 221 total requirements in seven different categories to 148 requirements consolidated into three categories. The new standard also loosens restrictions on the use of premiums tied to certification, and reduces the number of required inspections and farm visits.
Key Innovations and Enhanced Requirements
The merged organization introduced several groundbreaking features. The updated certification program provides new standards for farmers and companies in the areas of human rights, supply chains, livelihoods, deforestation and biodiversity and provides new data systems and tools for management.
The 2020 programme prohibits deforestation and destruction of natural ecosystems such as wetlands and peatlands and sets 2014 as the baseline year for the conversion of natural ecosystem. This means your farm must be protected from conversion since 2014 in order to be eligible for certification under the new programme.
The Rainforest Alliance 2020 Certification Program promotes a shared responsibility approach that includes two new requirements for buyers of Rainforest Alliance Certified commodities: the Sustainability Differential and Sustainability Investments.
In the new program, large farms are required to complete a salary matrix tool to identify the difference between current payment levels to workers and the living wage benchmark. If current wages are lower than the living wage, they must then develop a wage improvement plan in consultation with workers’ representatives to gradually achieve the payment of living wages.
Implementation and Transition Challenges
The transition process proved complex, particularly for coffee. “Offering claim level mutual recognition for coffee could lead to significant changes in sectoral supply and demand, and potentially increase pressure on producer prices,” Rainforest Alliance states on its website. “The coffee sector is currently facing historically low prices, and unlike in other sectors [our] coffee programs are linked to quite different markets.”
For coffee, Full Mutual Recognition will be rolled out in two phases: There will be Full Mutual Recognition in MultiTrace between 2020 SAS and UTZ volumes from January 31, 2022; during this period, traceability reporting for legacy RA 2017 volumes will remain in Marketplace. There will be Full Mutual Recognition in MultiTrace across all three standards (2020 SAS, UTZ, RA 2017) after legacy RA volumes are moved from Marketplace into MultiTrace.
Current Status and Future Outlook
With the launch of the 2020 Rainforest Alliance Certification Program in July 2020 and the introduction of the new Rainforest Alliance seal in September of that year, the UTZ certification program and its corresponding label are gradually being phased out. That’s why you will see the Rainforest Alliance certification seal on more and more products.
Five million hectares (12 million acres) of farmland — an area half the size of the U.K. — are certified against Rainforest Alliance sustainability standards. Two million coffee, tea, cocoa and banana farmers are certified to follow certification standards.
The merger has created efficiencies for producers, as many coffee producers had dual certifications, and this merger will mean they only have to go through one certification process, which is much more efficient and definitely a positive development. Moving forward, “Rainforest Alliance also announced that it plans to roll out three specialized certification solutions in the coming years, focused on regenerative agriculture, climate or livelihoods. Each of these offerings will share a common foundation of ambitious base criteria, complemented by additional criteria tailored to each specialized solution.”