Looking Beyond a label….
Coop SOL AGM Lima Peru Jan 2010
It was January 10th and we departed Whitehorse to start our journey south to Lima Peru and beyond! When we departed Whitehorse, we could barely make out the plane on the tarmac through the white out, making it even harder to imagine that soon we would be enjoying the warmth of the southern sun and some incredible hospitality from our Peruvian hosts.
Lima was the location for this year’s annual meeting hosted by the Pangoa Cooperative and Coop SOL where we brought together producer group representatives and roaster members of Coop Coffees. The big topic on the agenda was the future of Fair Trade and where it is heading. As a small family of fair trade roasters and producers our biggest asset is our relationship with each other. Our aim is to think about practical ways to build a tighter network in our fair trade family.
After everyone arrived in Lima, we started our meetings with Helen from Bean North, who is the President of the Coop SOL board and Monika and Shannon from Coop SOL, giving us an update on the happenings at our new cupping facility in Montreal. We then reviewed plans to continue partnering with Catholic Relief Services who funds Café Livelihoods and USAID, who funds Farmer-to-Farmer programs. Both work directly with small-scale coffee farmers by conducting workshops on understanding the coffee market, managing coffee quality, and related issues.
Once the updates were completed, we opened the floor and started our conversation about the future of Fair Trade. Of particular interest to all the roasters present was what our trading partners were thinking. After some emotional and heated conversation, our discussion extracted some very valuable information about the true impact of Fair Trade and certification on our trading partners and their communities. The mainstream model for Fair Trade certification was created for the right reasons but as it moves forward we clearly heard it has now deserted producers and their communities.
Farmers have been organizing themselves to try and show a stronger voice but few are listening. Many producer groups have been trying to communicate with FLO but in most cases they are not being heard. We were told that the expectations for small producer groups are unreasonable; more rules mean higher costs for them that ultimately defeat the objective of Fair Trade. A good example we heard is that it now takes up to half the salary of a producer coop staff member to do the necessary paperwork to feed the certification body instead of helping improve quality, production etc. To confuse matters even more, the current Fair Trade certification body still markets the fact farmers get a living wage, yet we heard the opposite. In some cases Fair Trade certified coffee is sold to large corporations below the cost of production. Where is the value for the farmer in that?
Some pretty eye opening stuff was heard and this was a great way to get the conversation going as we headed out into the Peruvian coffee lands. We broke up into two groups, Helen and a group of ten folks headed north to visit our friends at CEPICAFE and CENFROCAFE while Sasha and I headed off with our group of twenty to visit our friends at CAC Pangoa. What a weird feeling it was as we crested the Southern Andes at Tiglio during our 16-hour bus trip to Pangoa. This is site of the world’s highest operating railroad, which is over 16000 ft in elevation. As soon as we departed the bus for a photo, Sasha’s only words were “Daddy I’m going down”. Before we started our climb we did stop for some cocoa tea which helps with elevation sickness. But, in Sasha’s case the elevation was to much. Thanks to Esperanza from Pangoa for stepping in and calming my nerves as she revived Sasha with the essence of a local plant and kept an eye on him as we headed down the other side into the Amazon.
It’s important to note that the Pangoa Cooperative was formed not to sell coffee but for the social development of its members and community. They take pride in saying “together we do things better” and in the days ahead we would be getting a good look at why. Day one started off early with a delicious breakfast of eggs, avocado and fresh fruit all raised and grown on the farm of Don Gregorio, his wife Mika and their three children Louisa, Hido and Mika.
The family explained to us what their vision for their farm is and how they hope to accomplish it with assistance from the Pangoa Cooperative. After our delicious breakfast and great conversation we jumped back into the trucks and headed to another Pangoa member farm owned by Don Jesus. This area receives higher rainfall making it near impossible to properly dry the coffee. Don with the help of a CAC Pangoa initiative to build solar drying facilities, proudly showed us his newly completed drying facility.
After a cool drink and some conversations around other possible uses for the drying facility we moved on to our next visit in an area opened up for farming just 4 years previous. Never before have I seen such productive coffee plants; it was amazing what virgin soil full of its natural nutrients can produce. Finally, to end the day we had an excellent visit with Senor Guaringa who wanted to teach us about his bio fertilizer and bokashi (compost) production techniques and the incredible impact they are having on his coffee.
His farm yields about 3000 pounds per acre, which is unheard of for the majority of organic coffee farmers around the world. This is just another great example of “together we do things better”. Pangoa actively collaborated with others from the organic coffee movement in Nicaragua sharing information and innovation that now shows farmers that organic production can be sustainable.
On the final day of our filled visits we jumped back into the pickups and headed off to tour Issac Cotachi’s coffee farm and botanical reserve. Issac walked us through the beautiful forest preserve and coffee farm showing us his incredible foresight and knowledge of the lands around him.
Issac has been purchasing lands adjacent to his for many years allowing the land, and some times assisting it to return to natural forest. Two families of monkeys have reestablished themselves on his property. After a delightful breakfast including some of the farms fresh pineapple it was back onto the roads as we headed farther inland to the indigenous community of Mazaronquiari. Just as we arrived the tropical rains started, locals hurried for shelter and we were huddled under a small awning. Eventually everyone was hurried into the community hall were we were welcomed to the community and then learned about some of their incentives in developing eco-tourism related projects.
We woke early the next morning to have breakfast with our friends at CAC Pangoa. It was great to spend a day in the community seeing the operational side of the coop. The previous evening some members of our group stayed at the eco lodges/homes of farmers so the family could get feedback on their experience.
The day before one of our friends from Colombia lost his passport in a coffee field so the other visiting producers decided to leave their passports in our hotel for safekeeping. Little did they know that on their return to the community the next morning they would be pulled over by the drug eradication squad. As we waited their arrival, Esperanza informed us of what happened and requested Monika (CC producer relations manager) and Tripp (Member of CC) to head to the police station to see if they could correct the situation.
In the end everything worked out and to our surprise later that afternoon we received a visit by a representative of the police and army. They came to apologize for the incident saying there was a state of emergency in effect related to cocoa eradication and if they had looked further into the situation they would have understood why we were all visiting the community. On their departure they thanked all of us for our work in their community. After finishing the presentations on CAC Pangoa we got an excellent review of how they manage their Fair Trade and Organic processes. It’s always an eye opener when we realize how much work all this requires. It’s here where we found out that the certifying body for Fair Trade requests that a coop spend 10 cents per pound on projects the farmers may not need or want. It was clear to us what the farmers need is more money for their coffee and we are lucky as consumers to be getting any coffee at all. Finally the day ended with running, dancing, smiling and laughing and more dancing. You could feel the excited energy as the celebration continued.
Our last day at Pangoa we spent time cupping in their cupping lab before wrapping things up so we could all get ready for the overnight journey back to Lima. Looking back at our amazing visit I’m really impressed with our gracious hosts CAC Pangoa. Not only did we get to see and learn about the wide variety of the many projects that are under way for coop farmers it was even more impressive to witness the professional, competent and friendly style from all the staff at CAC Pangoa, no wonder the community is prospering! All the staff at CAC Pangoa are cross-trained so everyone can perform a large variety of tasks, the things we can learn!
Sasha is already asking when are we going back. No wonder… Sasha had 5 amazing days of riding in the back of a pickup through the Amazon with a bunch of friends, his mom nowhere near and his dad always in another truck some miles away. We saw a tarantula, met heaps of great families, spent time in the jungle, saw amazing examples of organic coffee production, chased chickens and ate some of the best Peru chicken and potatoes ever, danced and smiled, and then hugged and said, “We hope to see you again soon.”
Back in Lima, everyone back together to review the previous week to see if we could depart Peru with a plan on how to get Fair Trade going in a direction we could all be proud to be part of. It’s clear many in the industry have a different understanding of what relationships and transparency means. Fair Trade for farmers was supposed to provide small farmers with a living wage but that no longer is a guarantee,for current pricing does not support the real cost of production. Fortunately well-managed cooperatives like CAC Pangoa, CEPICAFE and CENFROCAFE have been able to provide vital support to their members but are constantly competing against the market and the coyotes and middlemen it supports. Everyone along the chain tends to protect their profit, yet the producer cannot do this and ultimately could end up selling below their cost of production.
Clearly it seems that the system now embraces multinational companies at the expense of small third world farmers and grass root fair traders. Our intent is to help farmers and we do not want to end up hurting them, so we have to step carefully. We concluded that this was just the start of the conversation and appointed a task force with two roaster members and four producer reps so the conversation and planning can continue. The goal of the task force is to also come up with an example contract that is truly a fair trade. This task force really has a lot of challenges ahead but I think we all left Peru feeling confident that these folks are really up for the task.
Thanks to all of our trading partners and the roaster members who could attend. I know we feel pretty honored to have joined with you all on this incredible journey through the coffee lands of Peru. The many great conversations, smiles and laughs along the way make it hard to imagine we are now home where the magic happens to make our vision of Fair Trade a reality. Stay tuned for updates.
By Michael King
