This year, our EFICO Foundation celebrates its 20^th Anniversary. A perfect occasion to remember and cherish its purpose – or the “Why” – behind its establishment 20 years ago.

As a family company, it is obvious to us that doing business should not be at the expense of people and the environment. Since the early years EFICO regularly supported its partner coffee farmers to realise their dreams, to give them long-term perspectives and hope for the future.

It was in 2003, that Patrick F. Installé, late member of EFICO’s founding family decided to organise and structure this support, with the purpose to make the investments as meaningful as possible. Patrick invited partner coffee roasters to be part of this journey and to connect closer with coffee farmers. This was the birth of the EFICO Foundation.

Today, we are proud to look back on the impact of the about 80 projects in 17 countries, following Patrick’s “avant-gardist” vision; building a sustainable coffee supply chain, with a special focus on knowledge transfer, sustainable income increase and climate change.

Ninety-seven years ago, EFICO embarked on a dynamic sustainability trajectory that continues to evolve, even (or even more so) in turbulent economic times.

On top of EFICO’s commitment of sourcing coffees sustainably, we formalized our commitment towards a thriving coffee future in 2003. It was the year that EFICO Foundation was founded and EFICO became the first coffee trading company subscribing to the United Nations Global Compact.*
The Global Compact is a voluntary, international network of corporate citizens that seeks to engage the private sector and other social actors in responsible corporate citizenship. This includes respect for universal social and environmental principles.

EFICO has good contacts with its coffee suppliers since the early beginnings. Over the years, several ‘ad hoc’ sustainable initiatives were taken, for example pre-financing of coffee farmers. Through EFICO Foundation, all these initiatives were bundled in a separate structure, with the aim to enhance transparency and independence. EFICO Foundation’s goal was and still is to positively impact coffee farmers’ livelihoods, prosperity and environment. Several types of projects live up to this concrete objective: focus on the next generation of coffee entrepreneurs, working on productivity and coffee quality but also projects covering more basic needs such as clean water and school supplies are put into practice.

EFICO Foundation was established by EFICO on 3 December 2003 to give concrete form to its membership of the UN Global Compact and to be able to contribute to the achievement of the UN Development Goals (endorsed in New York in 2000) and Agenda 21 (endorsed in Rio De Janeiro in 1992).

The implementation of Agenda 21 was confirmed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002 and played also a central role in Belgium’s sustainable development policy.

The philosophy behind EFICO Foundation since its set-up is to create the ideal vector to stimulate a dynamic Public Private Cooperation in favour of sustainability.

When looking back at the first beginning by diving in our archive, we came across our very first info campaign for EFICO Foundation, being actual until today. This campaign clearly explains our Foundation’s slogan: COFFEE FOR PEOPLE, PEOPLE FOR COFFEE.

We do care about coffee. As a trusted friend of the coffee community, EFICO is convinced that sustainable coffee farming contributes to a better livelihood for every coffee farmer and his surrounding environment. This is why we created EFICO Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting sustainable coffee production.

EFICO Foundation is about people: from coffee farmers, their families and their local communities to coffee consumers making a conscientious purchase.
Together, we can all make sure that sustainable prices and investments in the local coffee communities based on their needs guarantee that generations to come can prosper from the coffee seedlings they plant today.

EFICO Foundation has a unique model:

Two decades ago, we formally declared that doing business should not be at the expense of people and the environment by establishing the EFICO Foundation. Responsibility and sustainability are in EFICO’s DNA since the early beginning but were formalized in 2003.

In November 2023, we will raise the flag in honor of the 20^th  anniversary of the EFICO Foundation with the launch of a new flagship project. A full project briefing will follow later, but we want to reveal a small tip of the veil here already.
Think regenerative and innovative, future-oriented solutions…

We will structurally integrate the work we boost with the Foundation in our EFICO’s value chains. In the way forward we aim to create maximum synergies. 

In the meantime, we remain active aboard working on current projects, we strive to continue generating sustainable impact and we live up to our slogan ‘COFFEE FOR PEOPLE, PEOPLE FOR COFFEE’.

We have been on the right track for 20 years and we are definitely planning another 20 years!