From land to ocean, reducing the impact of coffee and cocoa

As the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) took place in June 2025 and the Year of the Sea continues, what practices can companies implement to protect the oceans and preserve water resources while growing their business?

An illustration with Alexandre Bellangé, CEO of Belco, supported by SG Entrepreneurs. Founded in 2007, the Belco group operates in Europe, East Africa, and Central and South America. Its two main activities are the development of sustainable agricultural supply chains for coffee and cocoa, as well as the import and distribution of these products across all continents. 

Ensuring the resilience of the business

"My main objective? To ensure the robustness of the coffee and cocoa production chains," explains Alexandre Bellangé. "We face three major challenges: adapting to regulations, dealing with geopolitical instabilities and environmental issues – particularly by reducing our dependence on fossil fuels – and making sure consumers still want to buy coffee or chocolate in the long term.

My driving force is this awareness: today, we can no longer run a company without taking the environment and our planet’s limits into account. Integrating CSR* at the heart of the business model means acting for its sustainability and, more broadly, that of the economy and our society."

Acting on land and at sea

"The majority of Belco’s actions focus on agricultural practices. We train producers in agroecology. In addition to coffee and cocoa trees, our lands include a variety of tree species. As a result of this diversification, the soils become rich and porous, which helps reduce the use of fertilisers and pesticides and thus limits water pollution. Thanks to this, we can maximise the use of rainwater and reduce irrigation practices. Then, after harvest, we favour mechanical processes, for example to pulp coffee beans, in order to reduce our water consumption and ensure local populations’ access to this vital resource.

We believe it is necessary to act across our entire activity. That is why, beyond agriculture, we are developing sail transport for coffee and cocoa. This is a human-scale mode of transport that promotes better preservation of the products while having a limited impact on the ocean. And, contrary to popular belief, we have halved the travel time! Now, our challenge is to increase sail transport and continue our international development".

Promoting sail transport 

"With the support of the Business Convention for Climate (CEC), we created the Crew for Climate to take part in a race at the end of October 2025 and promote sail transport of goods. This coffee route is an excellent communication lever to encourage business leaders to evolve their business models by integrating strong CSR objectives."

Belco and SG 

"We have a strong partnership with SG SUD OUEST, which supports Belco in the financing of all its projects," emphasises Alexandre Bellangé. "We share the same vision of environmental and social challenges, about which we regularly exchange. We even participated together in the Business Convention for Climate (CEC)".