Cooperatives

The cooperative Taramesa is located in the region Sidama, around 300 km south of the capital Addis Ababa. With 2330 members it is quite huge, but one person manages an average of only 0.5 hectares. In 2014, the cooperative has produced three containers of green coffee and already sixth in the year 2015.
Taramesa is part of SCFCU (Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union) – short Sidama Union. As in Ethiopia, the coffee trade is nationalized, it is only possible by means of the Sidama Union to conclude contracts with the cooperatives. The Sidama Union works very transparent and gives technical and financial support for the coops.

The cooperative Shilicho is located in Darra district, 350 km south of Addis Abeba, the capital. It is located on the boarder with Yirgachefe region.
The cooperative owns a wet-mill, drying beds, and a small warehouse to store dried coffee before it is shipped to Addis Abeba for the dry mill. Shilicho is one of the 42 cooperatives members of Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (SCFCU). SCFCU team is located in a dry-mill facility in Addis Abeba. The Union supports the cooperatives to establish direct and sustainable relationships with international buyers, and to set up processing practices along the value chain to ensure quality improvement.

Wayanad Organic Agricultural Development Society (Organic Wayanad) is a cooperative of more than 400 organic farmers, living in the region of Wayanad, in the Malabar-Mountains on the lush green Western Ghats of India.
The farmer family practice a highly bio-diverse, small-scale cropping system with among other coffee, spices like pepper, gloves, nutmeg and ginger, fruit trees and vegetables. This system is based on traditional scientifically improved practices, called zero budget farming. They apply manure from local cow varieties, vermi-compost, neem cake etc. regularly at the onset of South West Monsoon in June. Berry borer is a major pest of Robusta coffee and it is effectively managed by adopting integrated methods like clean harvest, use of mats during harvest to prevent gleanings (fallen cherries) and keeping traps in the farms.
With the start of its co-operation with ROASTERS UNITED in 2014, Organic Wayanad started a centralized eco-friendly coffee processing which since then has been constantly improved. ROASTERS UNITED supported this process with knowledge transfer, technical support and financial assistance. The resulting washed Robusta coffee is exclusively reserved ROASTERS UNITED and counts apparently among of the best organic Robusta coffees in the world.

The story of Permata Gayo in northern Sumatra began in 2006 in the middle of the period after the 2004 tsunami and after the peace agreement in Helsinki in 2005 between the Government of Indonesia and “Free Aceh” (Aceh province).

The cooperative started as a group of 50 founding members and now has over 2.000 members in 36 different villages, located in the region Bener Meriah. Permata Gayo is one of the few cooperatives in Sumatra who strive consistently democratic governance and fight corruption. The quality control is improving from year to year and a nursery, compost plants and improved processing facilities were installed. For the “lean months” between harvests, the cooperative provides programs to ensure sufficient supplies for the members.

The cooperative is part of the organisation Manos Campesinas, which helps the producers to market their coffee. Manos Campesinas was founded in 1997 and today consists of 12 associated cooperatives with a total of 1,200 individual members. 95% of the members are indigenous: they speak their own Mayan languages and have their own cultural characteristics.

The members of ADEBIPROM (Asociacion De Desarollo Bienestar y Pro – Mejoramiento) speak the Maya language Mam and live at the foot of the highest mountain of Central America, the “Tajumulco”, a no longer active volcano, which is 4,220m high. In the past, the 120 producers were members of another cooperative. But the long distances between the individual producers have made frequent meetings impossible: “The landscape does not offer the best conditions for transparency and democracy”. Therefore they moved closer together and founded the smaller ADEBIPROM in 2016. In 2019 we realized our first import with Manos Campesinas.

The cooperative Cenfrocafe was founded in 2005 and is located in northern Peru, not far from the Ecuadorian border. With the support of neighbouring cooperatives, they tried to provide a basis for the many small coffee producers in this rugged region, around the city of Jaén. Today, the cooperative has 2.500 members. In 2010, the cooperative has launched a huge program for quality improvement: Workshops were offered, technical and agricultural consultants where trained. Meanwhile Cenfrocafe is very important, when it comes to organic coffee production with high qualities in Peru.

The cooperative Aprolma (Asociacion de Productoras Libres de Marcala) was founded in 2013 and currently has 69 exclusively female members, mainly indigenous Lencas. Each member cultivates an average of 1.5 hectares in mixed cultivation. In addition to coffee, other products such as bananas, oranges and yucca are grown to feed the family. The aim of the cooperative is not only to produce the very best coffee, but also to empower women and to offer them financial success and stability. Three times a year, all women meet to discuss the current situation, elect board members or plan projects.
In a country where women’s rights are constantly being disregarded and which has one of the highest rates of femicide in the world, a women’s cooperative is particularly concerned with health and social issues. Like many other cooperatives around Marcala, Aprolma has a central processing plant where the harvested coffee cherries are delivered and then processed together. When the coffee cherries are delivered, the women receive a first partial payment. That’s why our pre- financing is so important.

Almost all members of Combrifol – “Cooperativa Mixta Regional Brisas de la Frontera Limitada” – are indigenous Lencas. Many of the coffee producers live in Nahuaterique, the border region to El Salvador, a poor and infrastructurally neglected region. This area has a very special history, from which the inhabitants suffer to this day: Originally part of El Salvador, it was struck to Honduras in 1992 by a verdict of the International Court of Justice. The result was a region for which the Honduran state did not really feel responsible and which, after many years of civil war, had hardly any functioning infrastructure. For example, water and electricity supplies are inadequate and school attendance for children is not always guaranteed.
On average, the members cultivate between 1 and 4 hectares of coffee, corn, beans and fruits. The cooperative offers many workshops and education in the social sector, but also in organic farming and agriculture. We have been working with Combrifol since 2016 and together we improve the quality of the coffee every year.

Located in the Cauca department, Fondo Paez is the largest indigenous coffee producers group in Colombia. The cooperative was founded with the goal of re-learning the traditional indigenous culture after years of opression. Fondo exported its coffee through the FNC from 2000 to 2012, and work now with ExpoCosurca, a local exporter based in Popayan that supports local community to access international markets. The quality control is run by the cooperative itself, and members receive a differentiated price according to the yield of the coffee they deliver. This method is inspired by the system implemented by the FNC all accross the country.

COOPFAM is a cooperative located in Poço Fundo, a small town located in the state of Minais Gerais. Their history leads back to the 1980s, in the 90s they were the first in Brazil to be certified Farir trade. They have a growing number of members, now reaching more than 400 farmers.
Eventhough not all their coffee is organic certified, Roasters United buys only organic coffee from them, trying to support this sustainable style of farming. In the Coop there is a strong sense of community and within their structure they have different projects to support the people in Poço Fundo. One outstanding producer group is their womens’ farmer group MOBI that produces excellent coffees.