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Maya Vinic Enters the Sweet World of Honey
The Cooperative "Producers' Union Maya Vinic" is comprised of 700 coffee farming families located in 36 highland communities in the municipalities of Chenalho, Pantelho and Chalchihuitan, in Chiapas, Mexico. Maya Vinic has been a producer-partner of Cooperative Coffees since 2001. They are currently working on a project of production and exportation of Fair Trade organic honey.
In 2006, when the producers of Maya Vinic first considered the possibility of gaining and utilizing apiculture techniques for the production and exportation of honey, they didn't know how feasible it would be to find a stable market that would sustain their new business endeavor. Finding trade partners who knew the value of Fair Trade organic honey was particularly difficult. Eventually, they came across other like-minded organizations in the region, with which they could collaborate to produce the honey, to imporve its quality, and to find the appropriate market. Mieles del Sur is one of the fellow cooperatives engaged in the marketing of Fair Trade organic honey. With twenty years of experience in the field of apiculture, Mieles del Sur has been a vital source of support for Maya Vinic.
The diversification of production has encouraged greater levels of organization at the internal level of Maya Vinic's cooperative. A committee of honey representatives meets once a month to discuss the progression of the project. More than half of the cooperative's members have promised their commitment towards honey production and sales. The producers work individually on their own apicultural material so that their immdiate families receive the benefits of the honey project.
Maya Vinic is enthusiastic about the honey project and the development of quality-control techniques involved in organic apiculture. They have successfully established contacts with importers who are interested in buying their honey, and they have signed their first exportation contract for sixteen tons of honey for 2009. The families of Maya Vinic are very pleased with the fruitful beginnings of their new diversification project as it will allow them to attain and maximize a better and fairer income.
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