FECAFEB - Bolivia

Fast Facts on FECAFEB

Founded in 1991
Secondary-level organization that offers services such as commercialization, technical assistance, training, and financial aid to its member cooperatives
Comprised of 35 farmer-coops (21 with FLO cert, 28 with organic cert)
Varieties: 70% criolla; 30% caturra
Altitude: 1200-1800 meters above sea level

Federacion de Caficultores Exportadores de Bolivia (FECAFEB): "secondary-level" exporting coop made up of primary-level producer coops

Associacion Integral de Productores Ecologicos de Pumiri (AIPEP): primary-level producer coop

The Federation of Exporting Coffee Producers (FECAFEB) was founded in 1991 as a national non-profit organization to defend the rights and needs of small-scale coffee farmers. FECAFEB has taken huge steps forward and seems to be right in stride with the new Bolivian political reality in support of Indigenous voice and rights.

FECAFEB is currently comprised of 35 coffee producer organizations, representing over 20,000 farming families. FECAFEB and its member coops have developed in important ways, including: the consolidation of its cooperative members; a widespread training program for administrative, leadership, and quality control improvements offered to cooperative leaders old and new; creating a political space for the voice of small-scale coffee producers to be heard and amplified; and in the sale of 120 containers of coffee primarily into the Fair Trade, Organic and other specialty markets.  Holland, Germany, France, Belgium, New Zealand, and the USA are among the several countries to which FECAFEB currently exports.

Cooperative Coffees participated in an extensive tour of FECAFEB cooperatives in May 2006. Out of that impressive visit came Cooperative Coffees first contracts of Bolivian Fair Trade and organic coffee.

Cooperative Coffees now works with the Associacion Integral de Productores Ecologicos de Pumiri (AIPEP), which represents approximately 60 families. The founding members have worked hard to construct impressive internal systems for excellent organic production and quality control, as well as solid mechanisms for assuring participation and administrative oversite by the members. AIPEP leaders say some 120 other farmers in the surrounding areas are watching their progress at securing markets, and have the potential to multiply their export capacity four-fold. AIPEP has been certified by IMO Control since 2002, but to date has not been able to export directly, nor be adequately compensated for their organic investment.

Check out more photos: FECAFEB, AIPEP

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Certifications:

Trace this coffee's documentation with FairTradeProof.org