Satellite monitoring to support sustainable coffee production

This can offer substantial value to corporate–brand loyalty.

Like many others, my morning starts with a nice cup of coffee. There are many coffee brands in the market offering good coffee but as a conscious consumer, I would like to know if my coffee is sustainably sourced or not. Because at the end of the day, our consumption behavior might be reducing our planet’s lifetime and we do not want to be part of that.

Let’s look at some numbers to get an idea about the scale of impact. Currently, about 11 million hectares of land are under coffee production and about 10 billion kg of coffee is produced around the world each year, with a total trade value of 40 billion USD. So, it’s a quite large industry that can have a significant impact on the future of our planet.

Coffee production is not only leading to significant climate change impact, but it is also suffering from it. According to scientists, the temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius, will reduce the global area suitable for coffee production by 50%. On the other hand, the global coffee demand is expected to triple by 2050. As a result, there will be more pressure on our forests and other habitats. So, if we cannot ensure the sustainability of the existing coffee lands, it would be quite tough for our 25 million coffee farmers and their livelihoods. That is big. So, what can be done?

Sustainability sourced coffee: First thing first, we must stop sourcing coffee that is grown in the deforested lands and we can accomplish that quite easily by checking the coffee lands using historical satellite imagery. Here is an example of a coffee farm in Brazil and by using satellite imagery, it can be proven that the coffee fields exist for 35 years (see the figure above). So, no deforestation has been taken place to grow coffee. 

Demand and supply assessment: Weekly available satellite imagery helps to monitor the coffee plant health at cost and helps to detect anomalies in crop health at scale, which can tell us a lot about if the coffee crop will fail or not. Historically, coffee prices are highly volatile. Therefore, such large-scale, near-real-time information is useful for the coffee trading stakeholders to be able to act in time to address the demand and supply gaps in the market. To achieve true sustainability, we must address the business needs along with the environmental needs as the market volatility affect everyone – the traders, the growers, farmworkers, and downstream value chain actors, etc.

Sustainable coffee production: The key players in the value chain are the input providers and coffee growers. The input provider wants to sell more inputs like fertilizer, sprays, etc. and the coffee growers want to grow more. Such intersection of interests leads to over-fertilization and loss of soil health and biodiversity. We should offer the coffee growers a better agronomic recommendation service through the input providers, then we can ensure sustainable coffee production in every coffee field of our planet.

The carbon footprints for 1 kg of fresh coffee are about 0.5 kg of CO2 equivalent and the main contributor to the emissions is the nitrogen input (emits nitrous oxide, which is 300 times more serious than CO2). So, we should optimize the Nitrogen fertilizer usages in coffee production as well as introduce precision farming practices in coffee production, wherever possible. Such precision farming decisions can be also aided by satellite imagery. Above, we can see an example of nitrogen fertilizer recommendation, which can cut fertilizer rate by 20 – 30%. Moreover, the zone-wise yield expectation map as well as the understanding of the influence of slope on the yield also provides necessary insights to the grower which helps them to further optimize their farm input and achieve higher ROI.

Analytics and future of coffee: Along with the other geographical factors like soil, tropical mountainous regions, etc., the influence of altitude on the flavor of coffee beans is significant. Higher altitudes above 900m are suitable for growing coffee and the relatively cooler climate in the high altitude ensures the long maturation process of coffee beans which is important for more compelling flavors. Knowing where the best coffee comes from (See the example below), we can find similar suitable locations for growing coffee in the future without compromising our planet’s health.

Due to climate change, we are going to lose 50% of our coffee growing lands and greater demand for coffee is being projected for the coming decades. So, we should start finding new suitable locations for coffee production so that we can address the growing demand for good quality coffee. Here satellite observation also can play a critical role.

We can find out all the current coffee goring regions, by classifying satellite imagery (see the figure above) and long-term historical satellite imagery also helps us to model the coffee growth, which not only helps us to model the yield but also help us to understand the coffee flavor. Now, if we combine all this information, we can start searching for suitable locations, globally and we might also be able to find new areas, that are suitable for coffee production, which will ensure that we will always have affordable, good quality coffee to enjoy also in the coming decades.

Conclusion: I am a conscious consumer, but still, I do not know if the coffee brand I am loyal to is ensuring sustainable sourcing of coffee or not. Maybe soon, when a greater number of consumers will start asking the same question, the coffee brands will make the information transparent/obvious to the consumers.

But the challenge I see – if we expect that every consumer will become a conscious consumer then the coffee brands will be pushed to ensure sustainable coffee sourcing, it might be too late. That is why, I think, the coffee brands should take the lead and start ensuring sustainable coffee sourcing and monitoring the coffee from the field to our cup. Thus, the coffee brands can provide the consumer better transparency about sustainability and ensure that the consumers will always have a positive feeling towards the coffee brands and dedication to purchase the same product repeatedly – brand loyalty.