Guatemala
ADIPCO
Fast Facts on Coop ADIPCO
135 Members in 11 communities – 7 members are women
Annual Production – Approximately 160,000 pounds
All Coffee Organic Certified or in transition
Founded in 1997, Joined FLO register in 2000,
Organic Certified in 2001
Altitude of plots between 1,000 and 1,400 ft
Future Plans – Expand membership, Build warehouse
Located about two hours east of Barillas in the department of Huehuetenango, ADIPCO (Asociacion de Desarrollo Integral Productivo Cocolense) is a 135 member first level cooperative based in the quite town of Cocola Grande. Members of the cooperative live in Cocola as well as 10 surrounding communities. The area is quite remote and no electric or telephone service has reached this part of Guatemala. The closest paved road is 5 hours away.
Founded in 1997, the cooperative has suffered through serious financial difficulties in recent years and has lost members as a result. In 2001, an exporter that handled much of the fair trade shipment from Guatemala declared bankruptcy and refused to pay a number of small farmer cooperatives for the coffee that he had purchased from them. ADIPCO lost almost US$100,000 due to this exporters mismanagement and the coop is still recovering from this loss. There is still hope that the exporter, who now operates under a different export license, will compensate ADIPCO for at least a portion of the loss – but the coop has moved on with some assistance from Oxfam and other organizations.
ADIPCO’s primary long term goals revolve around strengthening their internal structures and regaining the membership that they lost due to the earlier financial hardships. Because their location is quite remote, the support offered by a healthy cooperative and strong fair trade partnerships is particularly important to these farmers. Their operational costs are higher than most due to transportation and communication difficulties, and this makes them vulnerable in the local market.
The members of ADIPCO depulp their harvested coffee cherries at their home and dry the coffee on their own patio, roof or in parihuelas (a wooden tray with screen underneath, see left photo). The pergamino is delivered to the office in Cocola and inspected for quality and moisture content. If accepted, the pergamino is then delivery by pickup truck to a warehouse in Huehuetenango (8 hours away) and accumulated their until a shipping container’s worth has been collected. This coffee is then transferred to Guatemala City for final processing and export preparation in an organic dry mill.
The altitude of the plots farmed by members of ADIPCO range from 1000 meters to 1,400 meters. This year all production will be combined and early season shipments will probably receive an HB (hard bean) grade with later shipments receiving an SHB (strictly hard bean) grade. In future years, the cooperative will separate the early lower altitude harvest from later high altitude harvest and should offer some HB as well as SHB coffee for export.
APECAFORM
Fast Facts on APECAFORM
Founded: 1992, legalized under Guatemalan law in 1998.
Membership: 400 farmers in 17 communities
Region: Southwestern Highlands San Marcos, Guatemala
on the slopes of volcano Tajumulco (the highest volcano in Central America)
Coffee: Arabica, SHB Certified Organic by Mayacert-Oko Garantie Characteristics: A sweet, clean coffee offers good acidity and body in the cup.
In 2007, they exported 9 containers of FT and organic coffe
For 2008, they plan to export 10
Their annual assembly is between January and March
APECAFORM (Asociación de Pequeños Caficultores Orgánicos Maya-Mames) is comprised of 350 members living in 17 communities. The General Assembly is the highest decision-making authority and is responsible of electing the Boards of Directors. The central one guides and executes the main activities of Apecaform and coordinates tasks with five Local Boards of Directors, based in community centers. In addition, 21 local promoters coordinate and conduct technical trainings to improve organic agricultural practices, and to facilitate commercialization and a variety of social projects.
The coordinating community center was established in Pueblo Nuevo, because of its central location; it is only a two-hour drive to the city of San Marcos and on average a two and a half-hour walk from the remaining 17 APECAFORM communities!
APECAFORM is in its fifth harvest of organic certified production. Now, between 80% and 85% of their production is organic and the rest is in transition. There are now 266 members under certification and 80 percent of their total production goes to the cooperative for sale to the Fair Trade market. Exporting through Manos Campesinas to Fair Trade markets has meant the difference between selling coffee at Q.250.00 (US$32.50) per QQ parchment to coyotes and Q.714.05 (US$92.75) per QQ now as APECAFORM members. Cooperative Coffees has purchased coffee from Apecaform through its umbrella marketing organization, Manos Campesinas since our first year of operations. Through a strategic credit partnership between EcoLogic – Apecaform – Cooperative Coffees, producers have been able to increase direct Fair Trade sales by 50% annually for the last 3 years. Their actual average yield of organic coffee is 22 quintal an hectare.
Their board of directors is made up of the president, Arnulfo Ramos, the secretary Eusebio Chavez Penez, and the treasurer Paulino Ascalaute.
Achievements from the fair trade premiums include:
• Purchasing land and constructing a warehouse in Malacatan
• Creating a community fund to support their network of organic promoters and coordinators.
Goals for the future:
• To construct a wet processing plant in each of the five community centers;
• To administer a timely credit fund capable of offering producers adequate pre-financing.
• To increase their membership
CHALUJENSE – QUICHE
Fast Facts on Chalujense
1 668 coffee farmers in 56 communities, all organic
Annual Production – 2007 exported 47 containers of FT organic coffee
For 2008, they plan to export 55 containers
Diversification projects: cardamon, honey, The Posada lodge
Founded in 1988, FLO registered
Their Annual Assembly is in October
Their anniversary is in January
Future— improve dry mill
The Asociación Chajulense Va’l Vaq Qujol was founded in 1988 by some 40 coffee farmers of the Chajul area Triángulo Ixil, Quiché. The organization obtained its legal status in 1990. At present, the organization has 1,662 active members, most of whom are coffee farmers. Its main goal is to “promote a sustainable development model that is environmentally sound, economically feasible, fair from a social point of view and appropriate from a cultural standpoint”. The organization is working in 56 communities of the Chajul, Nebaj, Cotzal and Chiantla areas.
Coffee is their main export market and the first exports began at the end of the 80’s and the beginning of the 90’s, expanding the fair trade opportunities through the FLO registration, as well as organic certification. 90% of the members produce certificed organic coffee and the remaining 10% are internally certificed as producing transitional organic coffee. The organization is not actively looking for new members, but accepts new ones if they are organic or if they have new, young plantations that have been run organically for at least one or two years. Their organic production now have an average yield of 22 quintals per hectares.
In 2006, Cooperative Coffees purchased one of the first containers of fair trade, organic coffee shipped to the US market from Chajul and increased to two containers in 2007.
The organization had attempted to diversify with other products such as cardamom, cheese, honey, and handicrafts but found that some projects could not be sustainable. At present, the organization is further developing and working with four projects: coffee, cardamom, bee honey and The Posada, which is a lodge for tourists and visitors.
Their board of director is constituted of Arcadio Daniel Galindo, president and Francisco Ijom, secretary.
