[...] The cornerstone of our approach to buying coffee is Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices, which was one of the coffee industry’s first set of ethical sourcing standards when it launched in 2004, and we continuously work to improve the standard. As you may know, C.A.F.E. Practices was developed in collaboration with Conservation International. C.A.F.E. Practices is a verification program that measures farms against economic, social, and environmental criteria, all designed to promote transparent, profitable, and sustainable coffee growing practices while also protecting the well-being of coffee farmers and workers, their families, and their communities. To maintain an active status in the program, each supply chain is required to undergo reverification regularly.

C.A.F.E. Practices includes terms and conditions for verifying responsibly sourced coffee including traceability, remediation of zero tolerance instances; operating standards and guidelines for third party verifiers; and a commitment to third-party impact assessments and reporting.

C.A.F.E. Practices was built with continuous improvement in mind. Following good practices for voluntary sustainability standards, we are pleased to report that the latest update of the program became effective globally last month, July 2025. SCS Global Services continues to manage the C.A.F.E. Practices third-party verification framework to safeguard the quality and integrity of the verification approach.

C.A.F.E. Practices is a verification program, not a one-time certification system, because we believe there is always more work to do to protect the long-term supply of high-quality coffee and to positively impact farming communities. The program allows Starbucks to gain insights through extensive onsite farm field work and worker interviews to better understand the challenges faced by farmers and supply chain operations in 30 different coffee-producing countries around the world, that we source from. These insights are used to continuously improve and expand the program standards.

We want to hear when our policies and expectations are not being met. We take these concerns seriously and are continuing to investigate the risks identified in the report. We are committed to work across industry toward a sustainable and transparent supply chain.