Coffee Certifications – UTZ Certified

UTZ Certified is a certification labeling program for sustainable farming of agricultural products launched in 2002, it was formerly known as Utz Kapeh and in early 2007 the Utz Kapeh Foundation changed its name to UTZ Certified.

UTZ Certified is a foundation for the worldwide implementation of several agricultural products including coffee. Their emphasis is on transparency and traceability in the supply chain and efficient farm management. The latter includes good agricultural practices such as soil erosion prevention, minimizing water use and pollution, responsible use of chemicals and habitat protection.

Certification requires compliance with mandatory control points; the number required increases over a four-year period. The standards in the Code deal with the environment are quite general and lack specificity for meaningful protection of biodiversity.

Charges to producers include auditing fees. The first buyer in the supply chain pays a small per-pound fee that is passed along through the chain. There is no minimum price set, but producers can use the certification to negotiate a better price for their coffee.

UTZ Certified products are traceable from grower to manufacturers’ end product, UTZ Certified operates an advanced web-based track-and-trace system, showing the buyers of UTZ Certified products credibly link to the certified source. UTZ certified coffee is sold in almost 50 consuming countries. With an expanding range of programs for agricultural products, the presence of UTZ Certified is in a growing number of producing and consuming countries.