The adoption of harvest liners like GrainPro and Ecotact hermetic bags as the industry-wide coffee standard is a key step towards a more sustainable industry. By protecting green coffee from moisture, pests, and oxidation, these liners drastically reduce spoilage, ensuring that more of the harvested coffee reaches consumers at its final destination. In turn, this minimizes waste, making the entire production process more efficient and environmentally friendly.
These liners also contribute to sustainability through their material composition. Many like the Ecotact liners, are made from recyclable or biodegradable materials, offering an eco-friendly alternative to traditional plastic packaging. By choosing these options, the coffee industry can reduce its reliance on single-use plastics. Additionally, the use of hermetic lined bags assists in slowing down the respiration of coffee beans, reducing carbon dioxide emissions during storage and transport, further supporting advances in environmental sustainability.
The hermetic sealing properties of these liners eliminates the need for chemical fumigants, which are often harmful to not only the environment, but also those handling the coffee. The airtight environment also helps to prevent contamination by Ochratoxin A (OTA), a harmful mycotoxin, ensuring a safer product for end consumers. This shift to hermetic liners supports organic and sustainable farming practices, reducing the industry’s chemical footprint.
The extended shelf-life provided by these liners allows for a more efficient and flexible supply chains, reducing the need for frequent transportation and energy-intensive storage. This not only lowers the carbon footprint but also aligns with global sustainability goals, making hermetic liners a smart choice for a greener future in coffee production. The use of these liners is growing worldwide, with countries like Colombia, Brazil and Ethiopia leading the way in adopting this technology, not only for coffee but also for other agricultural products.
With roasters and end consumers having a sustainable conscious mindset, smallholder farmers investing in hermetic liners preserves the quality of their coffee, commanding higher prices in the market. Although the cost of investing in these liners may seem huge at the time, it can only benefit the smallholder farmers positively in the long run.
Ongoing research and innovation continues to improve these liners year on year. With advancements like multi-layered designs and integrated sensors for monitoring humidity and temperature, they continue to become an even more robust solution for not only the coffee industry, but also other ingredient based industries as well.