Ever since Victoria Arduino established their presence in the UAE with the Experience Lab earlier this year, it has become a hub for the local coffee community to get together for events, to network, and have a dialogue on important topics in the specialty coffee industry.

Harvesting Sustainability was jointly hosted by Victoria Arduino, Colombian Exotic Coffee, Juan Valdez, the need for coffee and Cartel Coffee Roasters, focused on several aspects of sustainability in different areas of the value chain.

The educational event aimed to spark real change in the coffee community by highlighting the role every player has to play in the value chain to adopt and advance sustainability within the industry.

Each host took turns to feature their signature coffees in a tasting session of coffee varieties with specific processing and brewed on technology that promotes sustainability throughout.

The event kickstarted with Estefania from Colombian Exotic Coffee speaking about environmental sustainability highlighting concerning facts of climate change, rising production costs, logistics and distribution.

Juanita from Juan Valdez was next and she covered the social aspect of sustainability. She spoke about the initiative called Women Coffee Growers (Mujeres Cafeteras) that empowers women coffee growers through various programs and environmental care.

The highlight of the evening was Camilo representing Cartel Coffee Roasters. His unconventional style of delivering the presentation was focused on asking uncomfortable questions forcing the audience to think out of the box. He questioned the way things were done at the farm level, from how coffee is purchased by roasteries to cafes and latte art competitions handling wastage of coffee and milk.

Events like this provide shining examples of efforts put in by various stakeholders. They inspire and raise awareness on how changes are made one step at a time. It need not be a giant leap for now, but it can be if the whole industry works collectively to a more sustainable future, a future where the coffee value chain is truly connected to each other.

Take a look at some of the moments from the event below: