NCBA CLUSA’s USDA-funded Café del Futuro project featured at COP29

The video features Gustavo Arroyo, coffee Producer and owner of Rancho Contento Coffee Estates.

A new video featuring NCBA CLUSA's Puerto Rico Climate-Smart Coffee project (known locally as Café del Futuro) was played at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan on November 19 during a session outlining the ambitious climate action steps the U.S. is taking.

Through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities-a $3 billion investment to develop and promote voluntary, market-based climate-smart solutions-coffee farmers like Gustavo Arroyo are adopting sustainable coffee growing practices.

"The way we see the future is that we come together… to produce a better cup of coffee with climate-smart practices for the next generation," Arroyo says in the video. "That baton will be in safe hands, and we'll have specialty coffee from Puerto Rico for years to come."

Backed by a $15 million grant from USDA, Café del Futuro unites a coalition of cooperatives, support organizations for small and underserved farmers, academic bodies and sustainability experts to establish a benchmark for climate-resilient agriculture globally. The pilot project will incentivize 2,000 coffee growers to adopt climate-smart practices by subsidizing coffee, shade and hardwood trees; providing cash grants and last-mile technical assistance; and access to specialty coffee markets with the intention of increasing incomes and promising durable economic and food security benefits.

"The Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities Program is changing coffee in Puerto Rico," Project Director Marcus Laws says in the video. "We think that the 20 climate-smart practices that we're promoting, such as planting shade trees, wind barriers, cover crops-all these things that help sequester carbon-will also reduce the cost to the farmers, increase their revenues, as well as open new markets for Puerto Rican coffee."



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