Coffee manufacturer suspends ethical label due to Suez disruption

Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE), who own the Carte Noire, Kenco and L’Or coffee brands, has been forced to temporarily suspend its Rainforest Alliance ethical label as its certified coffee supplies have been caught in the bow wave of disruption caused by the 8-day blockage of the Suez Canal by the MV Ever Given.

As reported in Supply Management magazine, a spokesperson for JDE said:

“Due to the unexpected incident on the Suez Canal that resulted in supply chain blockages, we are currently unable to source enough certified coffee from key coffee origins in Asia and Africa for some of our brands with the Rainforest Alliance and UTZ labels.

“This means that from March 2021 to May 2021, some of our brands may not contain 100% coffee from Rainforest Alliance certified farms. We expect this to be resolved by the end of May 2021 though and our products will go back to 100% certified.”

To support its certified suppliers, JDE has purchased an extra volume of certified coffee beans from its suppliers in Asia and Africa to ensure that none were financially impacted by the delays caused to the global supply chain by the MV Ever Given.

As highlighted by Arfon Consulting’s supply chain analysts earlier this month (The bow wave of Suez Canal disruption hits Europe’s ports), the knock-on impacts of the Suez Canal disruption continues to be felt in global supply chains, which were already severely impacted by COVID-19 and shortages in commodities and supplies.

The container line company, A.P. Møller-Maersk, has estimated the Suez blockage could continue to cause bottlenecks throughout the container industry and supply chains into the third quarter of 2021.

Photo by Delightin Dee on Unsplash