"Exploitation and opacity: The hidden reality of mexican coffee in Nestlé and Starbucks supply chains", February 2025.

In the mountains of Chiapas and Veracruz, where Mexico’s coffee thrives, lies a harsh reality that Nestlé and Starbucks consumers never see in their expensive cups of coffee. While these global corporations continue to expand under the guise of sustainability and social responsibility — a misleading narrative that harms consumers —, the farmers who supply their coffee face opaque practices, human rights violations, and systemic marginalization that perpetuate poverty in rural communities. This research report uncovers how Nestlé and Starbucks, through questionable intermediaries and certification practices, have constructed a model that prioritizes corporate profits and control over the well-being of the small producers who sustain their supply chains, working closely with Mexican Government ministries and agencies. Neither Nestlé nor Starbucks openly acknowledges the immense power wielded by dominant coffee traders such as ECOM Agroindustrial Corp. Limited (ECOM), Neumann Kaffee Gruppe (NKG), and Louis Dreyfus Company B.V. (LDC). These multinationals control the majority of Mexico’s coffee market, dictating production terms and holding disproportionate sway over the lives of small-scale farmers. The influence of these commodity traders ensures that the conditions faced by coffee growers are shaped by decisions made far away from the fields that they cultivate. This report also shows that both Nestlé and Starbucks boast their own certifications — Nestlé’s 4C and Starbucks’s C.A.F.E. Practices —, which claim to promote sustainability. However, these programs tend to exclude small producers who cannot meet the requirements imposed by the very companies that dominate the market. Behind the image of sustainability, coffee growers remain stuck in cycles of debt, low prices, and exploitative labor practices, with no way to sell their products outside this restrictive system...