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CC partners with CRS
Coop Coffees ally and Fair Trade supporter, Catholic Relief Services has officially launched a "Coffee Livelihoods" program that will incorporate several producer coops -- including some of our partners -- in Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico. The project entails a series of tecnical and management training workshops that will take place over the course of the next 3 years. Coop Coffees, along with social lender and ally Root Capital, will help facilitate several of these workshops.
The market for high quality, organic coffees continues to grow in North America. But due to lack of appropriate direct market connections, needed volumes and/or knowledge about quality requirements, many small-scale farmers are still left out of this market "boom".
In the face of these and many additional challenges particular to coffee farmer coops with whom Catholic Relief Services (CRS) works in Central America and Mexico, a 3-year Coffee Livelihoods assistance program is now "officially launched" following an intensive 3-day planning session Jan 20 – 22 between the country coordinating heads from Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico.
The program is designed to support farmers with agricultural, quality control and administrative practices - taking the learning process from seed to final cup evaluation. Cooperative Coffees, along with our strategic financing ally Root Capital, have been invited as "external specialists" to collaborate with hands-on activities in our respective topics of expertise: understanding (err.. untangling) coffee markets in today's economy, improving quality and quality control practices, and financial management and planning, respectively.
The primary objectives of the program include: improving yields in the coffee fields and coffee quality in the final cup analysis; improving access to infrastructure; and improving overall management skills and financial planning with cooperative leadership. The challenges remain daunting and the objectives are ambitious... but at CoopCoffees we remain hopeful that our participation in this program can yield tangible, positive results for small-scale coffee farmers.
