Nahuala 08/03/03

With Sebastian Onesima Xol, Adviser, Julio Tambriz, responsable of the commercialisation, Francisco Guarcha Tambriz, president of the board, and Juan Choc Chox, vice-president.

This is a nice little cooperative of now 132 members, of which 88 are organic and 17 are women. We had the chance to try their new little hostel for their Eco-Tourism project; we were the second group staying there. It is a very nice building with two dormitories and two bathrooms with hot showers. The project is still in process and they expect it will be ready by the end of the year (2008).

Nahuala have exported 2.5 containers in 2007 and plan to export 3 containers of organic and 2 of transitionnal in 2008. Their projection for 2009 is 4 containers of organic and 3 or 4 of transitionnal. The average land size is smaller than one hectare, but their elevation is around 1250 meters. They have a diversified production of honey and bananas. The 44th aniversary of the coop will be on march 29th of 2008.

Nahuala has recently received help from a Spanish organization to build a wet processing plant. In this cooperative, many members have their parcel near the cooperative office, which allows them to bring the entire cherry to the office, rather than processing to pergamino at their house, as most cooperatives do. This new mill has a capacity of 60 quintals per hour. This centralization helps increase the control over coffee quality but also represents a risk. This past season, 110 quintals were lost because they lacked sufficient space for drying the beans and many beans fermented.

 An interesting project Nahuala is now working on is a mixed variety between a Robusta and an Arabica. They name this plant a coffee injerto. To produce it they take the roots of the 2 weeks old Robusta plant and add an Arabica head. According to their latest results, this hybrid gives an Arabica coffee quality, but with a higher yield since the Robusta roots are more resistant to disease. They now have 25 of their 73 hectares producing this new brand. So far,  they have observe that on average the injerto plants have production of 160 to 170 pound of cherry per 1/18 of hectare. The normal production of organic trees is around 120 to 125 pounds. According to Sebastian, the supervisor of the project, this technique was developed in Chocola, a neighbouring town, around 15 years ago. He believes up to 15% of the Guatemalan Arabica production now comes from injertado plants. Sebastian is working on a document that will explain the difference, the technique and the yield of the plant.

Meeting with the Board of Directors

According to the Board, the most important challenge facing Nahuala has been the drastic increase in the market price for coffee.  They noted that coyoted had been in the last days offering up to 950 to 1000 quetzals for a quintal of coffee pergamino (the exchange rate was then 7.5 quetzal per US dollar). In comparison, last harvest, Nahuala was paying 725 quetzals for a quintal of pergamino.

 Their production of organic bananas is going well. They now sell 630 tonnes a year in the local market, especially in the big cities. They are trying to educate Guatemalans about the benefits of eating organic. 

It was an interesting time to visit the coop, as they were dealing with the challenge of getting the coffee from their members due to the high price the coyotes were offering. They still had two contracts with another buyer who would not close the contract until a sample was approved. Because they didn't know at what price the contracts would close, the cooperative couldn't tell their members what price would be able to pay them for their coffee.  Bill worked on explaining how to create a system that would help them set that price earlier and how to communicate this adequately to  farmers.  Another difficulty facing the coop was a lack of pre-financing (they hadn’t made any demand until our visit), so they were not able to make any payments to their producer members. This was advantageous for the coyotes who, in contrast, can pay the producers immediately and in full.

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