What is the UTZ label and is it still relevant?

UTZ was a Dutch agricultural sustainability label founded in 1997, specialising in coffee, cocoa and tea. In 2018, UTZ merged with Rainforest Alliance to create a unified new Rainforest Alliance label, active since 2020. The UTZ label as such no longer exists — but its standards and database of certified farms have been integrated into the Rainforest Alliance 2020 framework.

UTZ (a Mayan word meaning 'good') was founded in the Netherlands in 1997 at the initiative of a Guatemalan coffee importer. Its model was based on a detailed Code of Conduct covering agricultural practices, working conditions, environmental protection and traceability — with a realistic, progressive rather than absolutist approach. UTZ certified approximately 5% of global coffee production at the time of the merger.

The 2018 merger with Rainforest Alliance, commercially effective in 2020, created a considerable communication challenge: two recognised labels with different strengths — Rainforest Alliance strong on biodiversity and tropical forests, UTZ strong on agricultural traceability and social conditions — had to align their frameworks into a common standard. The new Rainforest Alliance 2020 adopts a score-based rather than binary compliance approach, which is more nuanced but harder to communicate to consumers.

The relevance of the new Rainforest Alliance label in 2026 is debated within the specialty coffee community. On one hand, it is the most widespread sustainability label in the mass consumer coffee market (covering billions of cups sold annually), giving it significant systemic impact. On the other, its standards are judged insufficient by specialty coffee actors who prefer direct trade, relationship coffee or organic certification, considered more rigorous and transparent.

In practice, a Rainforest Alliance-certified coffee guarantees a minimum level of good agricultural and social practices, but does not guarantee cup quality, farm-level traceability or prices above the C market characteristic of specialty coffee. For Belgian consumers, it is an acceptable sustainability indicator for everyday supermarket coffee, but insufficient as the sole criterion for specialty coffee enthusiasts.

Comparison of coffee sustainability labels