Webinar: Promoting sustainable coffee development, reducing emissions, meeting EUDR – Nestlé Vietnam's regenerative agriculture model

With a purchase volume of 25-30% of Vietnam's total coffee output, Nestlé Group and its Vietnamese company play a crucial role in the development of Vietnam's coffee industry. Through the Nescafé Plan Vietnam program, Nestlé is simultaneously addressing two major demands of the international market: (1) EUDR compliance through traceability down to individual farming households and (2) Carbon emission reduction through the application of regenerative agriculture practices. This not only helps meet EU regulations but also contributes to increasing farmers' incomes, enhancing resilience to climate change, and building a sustainable coffee supply chain for the future.

These contents were shared by Mr. Pham Phu Ngoc, Agriculture Director and Head of Nescafé Plan Vietnam, at the webinar "Promoting Sustainable Coffee Development, Reducing Emissions, and Meeting EUDR: Nestlé Vietnam's Regenerative Agriculture Model" organized by the Sustainable Coffee Development Network and the Agri-Forestry Policy Research Network.

Building a Traceability System Down to Individual Farming Households

According to Mr. Pham Phu Ngoc, the Nescafé Plan Vietnam program is currently collaborating with approximately 23,000 farming households, with plans to expand to 26,000 households by the end of 2026, and simultaneously completing the collection of over 40,000 polygons of cultivated plots to serve traceability requirements under EUDR.

The traceability system is built throughout, from farming households and collection points to factories, combined with risk assessment and supply chain due diligence to ensure that raw materials exported to the EU meet requirements for legality, transparency, and no deforestation.

Simplifying Regenerative Agriculture for Easy Adoption by Farmers

In addition to traceability, Nestlé also considers regenerative agriculture a core solution for reducing emissions and enhancing the coffee industry's adaptability to climate change. The goal of regenerative agriculture is to enable coffee trees to return to their origins, meaning that although yields may not be as high, the coffee trees will survive for many generations. Instead of introducing all 17 regenerative agriculture practices, which are quite complex for farmers, Nestlé's program is simplified into three main practice groups:

• Soil and soil health conservation;
• Water conservation and efficient use;
• Enhancing biodiversity.

According to the speaker, these practices are designed based on the principle of "easy to understand, easy to implement, low cost"**, helping farmers apply them directly on their coffee farms.

Specifically, Nescafé Plan is currently implementing solutions to optimize fertilizer use to reduce N₂O emissions, increase the use of organic fertilizers and agricultural by-products, plant shade trees, practice appropriate intercropping, apply water-saving irrigation techniques that help reduce water usage by approximately 40–60%, and simultaneously measure greenhouse gas emissions using international tools such as Cool Farm Tool and LI-COR AgriScanner for continuous monitoring and improvement. The program also prioritizes actual emission reductions in the supply chain rather than solely focusing on carbon credits.

Putting Farmers at the Center of the Transformation Process

A highlight shared at the webinar is the model of "farmers learning from farmers". Nestlé selects exemplary farming households to establish reference farms, where farmers can directly observe, practice, and exchange experiences on-site instead of just learning theory. Farmers will directly share and guide, while Nestlé's experts stand behind to provide scientific explanations.

This farmer-centric approach helps to:

• Enhance technical adoption capacity;
• Promote the application of regenerative agriculture;
• Increase outreach within the coffee farming community;
• Ensure supply and livelihoods for the people.

The discussion session following the presentation focused on many issues of community interest, such as organizing EUDR implementation at the scale of tens of thousands of farming households, data collection costs, data sharing mechanisms with regulatory bodies, challenges in scaling up regenerative agriculture in the Central Highlands and Northwest coffee regions, as well as the prospects for developing regenerative agriculture guidelines suitable for Vietnamese conditions.

The practical experiences from Nescafé Plan are considered a useful reference for businesses, organizations, and localities in preparing to meet EUDR, while promoting the development of a coffee value chain towards transparency, low emissions, and sustainability.