Quality and Sustainability: An Unbreakable Bond
illy – it is about passion for excellence, instilling beauty in every single product and creating an authentic Italian coffee experience through quality, aesthetics and culture. Illy enlightens and illy educates. It rewards quality and it champions building quality. Above all, illy values people and ethics through sustainability, transparency and developing every coffee-growing region where it sources its beans with profound dedication to the people. In its quest for perfection from bean to cup, illy culminates with an extraordinary cup of coffee and a strong vision for a sustainable future.
Through unparalleled technology and the willingness to create a coffee culture that is inspirational, educational and rewarding, illy improves lives at the economic, social and educational levels.
Education and Rewards
illy’s mission is to care for and grow the regions where its coffee originates, from Brazil to Ethiopia to India. Farmers in these areas are motivated to supply the world’s best Arabica beans for illy. They are educated through universities, technologies, partnerships and profound knowledge so the quality of production matches the illy standard of excellence. Illy not only educates the farmers, it rewards them. The program illy developed for Brazil has given the country’s growers the opportunities not only to grow the best coffee, but to advance their entire country. Brazil now sells 40 million bags of coffee as opposed to the 16 million bags sold in 1990, before illy programs began. Brazil benefits from the ongoing relationship with illy as well as from the Quality Award for Coffee Growers, a cash prize that illy awards to the country’s best coffee producers annually. Now in its 15th year, more than 600 Brazilian producers from different production areas in Brazil like Sul de Minas and Alta Mogiana, take part in the competition in an attempt to deliver the finest Arabica bean. Each year surpasses the year before, in entries and in quality coffee, making Brazilian coffee production now one of the best in the international market and proving illy’s goals for sustainability to be attainable.
illy’s vision to create programs that foster both sustainability and quality goes beyond its awards system in Brazil. In Ethiopia, illy acknowledged the country’s high-quality washed Arabica beans and developed an initiative to increase the business and coffee culture throughout the country – an initiative that has gained support by the International Coffee Organization and the United Nations Common Fund for Commodities.
• 1991: illy launched its first quality program, the Brazil Award, awarding $30,000 to the producer of the best Arabica coffee. This initiative was followed by the India Award, the Colombia Award and the Guatemala Award.
• 2000: illy founded the Università del Caffè in partnership with the University of São Paul
• 2000: Club illy was established, making it the meeting and exchange site for all illy suppliers in Brazil.
• 2002: illy developed a two-year training program in Guatemala to teach technical and management skills to small growers in order to make them aware of the potentials of their industry.
• Ethiopia: illy devised a processing procedure, increasing crop quality significantly with minimal investment. As well as co-funding the project with the International Coffee Organization, illy sends its qualified technicians to work on site and assist growers during the harvesting and processing stages.
Sustainability Celebrated Through Photography
Over the years, illy has continued its commitment to sustainability by establishing relationships with opinion leaders and artists who are dedicated to the cause. Illy collaborates with renowned Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado to promote sustainable development through “In Principio,” a dramatic photographic tale of coffee growers around the world. Illy and Salgado present “In Principio” to coffee cultivators not only to create awareness of the customary and ritual gestures, plantations, history and culture of coffee from countries that give origins to our daily drink but also to celebrate them. It is a tale of man, stories, villages, landscapes and harmony and both Salgado’s imagery and cup series continue his shared journey with illy to improve sustainability and overall quality in the coffee market.
illy Goes Beyond Fair Trade
illy practices fair trade with a goal in mind to achieve unmatched quality. The premium is reinvested in illy’s sourcing systems by selecting the growers and motivating them to work directly with illy though awards and programs. Through the Università del Caffè and education from its team of agronomists, illy strives to constantly bring about the best crop and post harvest processing practices. Above all, illy always buys its coffee directly from the grower and pays above market prices without being swayed by fluctuation. Illy has a strong belief that properly compensating the growers for their crop is of utmost importance.
Quality of Experience, Quality of Process, Quality of Life
Through all of these programs and initiatives, illy is a world leader in sustainability. In up and down markets, illy's long-term policy of joining quality with economic, social and environmental sustainability and the knowledge through education for this prosperity to grow, gives its cadre of growers a stability unknown in the world of commodity coffee. Quality of experience, quality of process, quality of life, for all those who are involved in production and marketing, for all those who uphold illy’s high-quality standards, for all those who know illy and end up with a perfect cup of coffee.
• illy coffee undergoes 114 quality controls before and after roasting.
• illy holds four certifications that acknowledge its high-quality standards and its exemplary environmental policies Qualité France, UNI EN ISO 9001:2000, UNI EN ISO 14001 and EMAS (EcoManagement and Audit Scheme).
• In 2003, illy opened its new low-emission roasting plant in Trieste, Italy, which produces coffee with less impact on the environment due to reductions in energy consumption and differentiated refuse collection.
• illy promotes the semi-washed technique in green coffee-producing countries, which results in a considerable savings in water (about 90%) compared to the wet processing method.
• All of the green coffee lots purchased by illy are tested to verify that they contain absolutely NO pesticide residue of any kind, including DDT
About illycaffè
Celebrating its 75th anniversary, illycaffè is the world’s finest Italian coffee and a leader in quality, innovation and technology. A third generation Italian coffee company, illy is the number one European imported coffee brand in North America. Based in Trieste, Italy, illycaffè produces and markets a unique blend of coffee as the single brand leader in quality coffee and gives coffee connoisseurs an overall authentic Italian coffee experience. Illy is available in more than 50,000 of the finest restaurants and coffee bars and is sold in over 140 countries around the world, serving more than 6 million cups of illy coffee per day. Globally, illy employs more than 700 people.
illy buys green coffee of the highest quality Arabica directly from the growers through partnerships based on the mutual creation of value. The Italian-based company fosters long-term collaborations with the world’s finest coffee growers – in Brazil, Central America, India and Africa – providing know-how and technology and offering above-market prices.