Archives: Cooperatives

The Central Cooperativa Indígena del Cauca (CENCOIC) is an organisation of coffee producers founded in 1980 as the commercial arm of the indigenous movement in Cauca, Colombia (Consejo Regional Indígena del Cauca).

The organisation achieved Fairtrade certification in 1995 and, thanks to this, has been able to defend small coffee producers from the abuses of the large, dominant multinational coffee growers.

Currently, CENCOIC identifies coffee as its main line of action, with groups of producers belonging to at least 24 indigenous reserves in the department of Cauca, and in different indigenous groups located in the municipalities of Caldono, Piendamó, El Tambo, Santander de Quilichao, Toribio, Jambaló, Inza, Buenos Aires and Suárez.

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The Asociación de Productores Ecológicos de Planadas (ASOPEP) is an organisation operating within the municipality of Planadas, in the department of Tolima, Colombia. Each producer member cultivates an average of 6 acres of coffee plantations, and its economy is based solely on income from coffee production. ASOPEP is certified organic and Fair Trade, with the idea of supporting and opening up new opportunities for coffee producers in the region.

Asopep is one of the most advanced groups in the southern region of Tolima. It stands out not only for its production volumes, but also for its quality and consistency in the cup profile, its high organisational level and its management capacity.

It is a highly organised association that applies stringent internal controls in the supply chain, which are reflected in its excellent coffee offer.

ANEI's main mission is to promote and support the cultural preservation of the Arhuaco, Wiwa and Kogui indigenous peoples within their region through the implementation of eco-sustainable projects that strengthen the group's organisational processes. Also, to support the economic and social recovery, as well as the cultural rights of the people who belong to the organisation.

ANEI seeks to improve the quality of life by making sustainable use of resources. It also wants to play an important role in the recovery of universal order and harmony, in relation to the cosmological vision of the local population, which play a vital role in maintaining balance in the Universe.

ANEI also seeks to promote greater cooperation and understanding between the indigenous and non-indigenous population within its area of influence. It has already incorporated many campesinos (farmers and agriculturists of Spanish descent) into the association.

All of these objectives have been created in the context of the problems and challenges that the diverse indigenous communities of the Sierra Nevada faced at the time the organisation was founded.

Coopervitae (Cooperativa Agrícola de Nova Resende de Productores Orgânicos e Região LTD) is located in Nova Resende, in the south of Minas Gerais, Brazil, and has 377 members. The cooperative has an area of 1600 hectares of Arabica coffee, with an average altitude of 1000 metres, and the coffee production is of excellent quality.

Coopervitae is mainly made up of farming families, whose main source of income is coffee. Since 2006, its coffee has been Fairtrade certified, which has allowed it to improve and ensure the sale price of its production, maintain a relationship of trust and respect with its customers, strengthen its alliances and add value to its coffee, guaranteeing social and environmental sustainability in its cultivation.

This cooperative was founded in 2005 thanks to the efforts of a group of rural farming families. It was born with the aim of improving the quality of life of farming families, through sustainable production, respect for environmental and social issues and, above all, through the search for improvements in production efficiency in the properties and the quality of coffee.

COOFACI supports its members through actions that allow, on the one hand, agricultural diversification, the preservation of the environment and sustainable development and, on the other hand, the search for new partners and new markets to improve the quality and value of agricultural products (and, consequently, the quality of life of producer families).

Fair Trade has meant great progress for the Cooperative's member families, particularly in the field of management, as they previously had fewer opportunities for access to education, technological innovation and, above all, had very difficult access to credit policies and to technical assistance and rural extension.

The Dominican Foundation of Organic Producers - FUNDOPO, is a first degree, non-profit organisation, formed by women and men dedicated to the production of organic cocoa and other crops. It groups 67 Productive Units, with 1500 organic cocoa producers from the regions of Villa Altagracia, Yamasá, Puerto Plata, Joba and Blanco Arriba, Nagua, El Seibo and Salcedo.

Its main objectives are: to achieve the integral development of the producers' economy (promoting environmentally sustainable national and foreign investment), the equitable distribution of goods and services and the improvement of the quality of life of its members. They also protect and preserve natural resources in order to guarantee sustainability and biodiversity in the municipality of Villa Altagracia. In addition, they work to design and promote the programme that enables the integral development of women and girls in the municipality of Villa Altagracia.

CONACADO was born in 1985 thanks to a successful alliance between small and medium cocoa producers and with the support of the Department of Cocoa of the Ministry of Agriculture and the German Cooperation Agency GTZ.

Its objective is to improve the income and quality of life of cocoa producers and their families; this is achieved by supporting the sustainable management of their farms, improving the quality of their products, the efficient marketing of their harvests, the strengthening of their organisations and the integral development of the communities in which they live.

It works with the aim of achieving a technically developed cocoa sector, with high quality products, recognised and positioned internationally, produced by men and women who have achieved an adequate standard of living.

The objective would be achieved by educating producers and improving collection and processing infrastructure to ensure their positioning in the most demanding international markets.

The Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera Valle Río Apurímac, founded on 14 December 1969, is an organisation that was created with the aim of strengthening the production and rural management capacity of its members in order to improve their quality of life and ensure the well-being of their families, all on a socially responsible basis. Its main objective is to provide efficient support services to its members in the production and marketing of coffee and cocoa.

It is located in the Apurímac River Valleys, belonging to the regions of Ayacucho, Cuzco and Junín. The cooperative works with some 2,750 members and was the first Peruvian cooperative to have its products Fairtrade-certified in 2011. This has allowed it to invest in environmental programmes to support and improve organic farming and in organic certification.

They also work for gender equity with the "Women's Leadership" project, which aims to improve the recognition and participation of rural women in the cooperative. In addition, they also offer microcredit systems and improvements in production, among other benefits.

The Norandino Agrarian Cooperative was founded in 2005. It is made up of more than 7,000 families of small cocoa, coffee and panela producers. They come from the coastal, highland and jungle areas of northern Peru, from Piura, Tumbes, Amazonas, Cajamarca and San Martin. The cooperative offers its members storage, processing and transformation services, as well as logistics, consultancy, export and product promotion.

This cooperative promotes sustainable development with equity, which is aimed at improving the living conditions of the associated families, articulating their production in the local and international market.

This organisation came into being in April 1993 with the union of 50 cocoa-producing cooperatives around Kumasi (the second largest city in Ghana). These cooperatives have a very participatory structure and each cooperative is obliged to have an accountant and a product manager. They export through a second-tier organisation, and the grassroots cooperatives reinvest the price paid in the construction of housing, training and the maintenance of their culture.

Kuapa Kokoo was born as a response to the liberalisation of the cocoa market, being aware of the need for farmers to organise and actively participate in the cocoa trade. It has been collaborating with Fair Trade organisations since 1993 and this has allowed them to operate independently, while at the same time giving them the tools to decide on their own development.

Some of the benefits that farmers in Kuapa Kokoo gain from Fair Trade are, for example, enabling people to live from their skills and labour or paying a fair price to producers (which may well be above the government-approved price). In addition, it also provides training and access to information on international markets and social premiums, which are used for community development infrastructures (schools, access to drinking water...).