Colombia Producer Profile

Name: Cafequidad
Members: 280+
Location: Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (Colombia)

Photos from the Co-operative

Area/Region

The Cafequidad cooperative is located in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region in northern Colombia. The area is a protected national area; located 5,700 meters above sea level, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is the world's highest coastal region. A large indigenous and rural population occupies the region. There are over 2,000 coffee farming families in the area concentrated around the municipalities of Santa Marta, Ciénaga, Aractaca and Fundación. The landscape is rugged and lush, ideal for coffee farming.

  

Use of the Fairtrade Premium

Fair Trade premiums have helped enable the cooperative to invest in various social and economic initiatives:

Credit Program

Cafequidad invested premiums to help finance the pre-harvesting costs for both the cooperative and the individual farmers.

Purchasing Budget

Cafequidad set a fund that allows the cooperative to purchase and stockpile coffee from its members directly, avoiding the coffee hoarding by middlemen who drive down the farm-gate price of coffee for individual farmers. By allocating Fair Trade premiums for this purpose, Cafequidad can provide a better price to its cooperative members. It is often difficult for coffee organizations to assure their supply obligations are met when they cannot pay their members immediately when the farmers turn their coffee over to the cooperative. Coyotes, or intermediaires, are infamous for inserting themselves between farmers and cooperatives to purchase coffee at a lower price because farmers are in need of immediate cash. By implementing a purchasing fund with Fair Trade premiums, Cafequidad can ensure a better price for its members and can meet its contractual obligations to Fair Trade coffee buyers.

Building Improvements and Asset Investments

In 2009, Cafequidad invested in facilities improvements for the cooperative’s main administrative office and warehousing centers in Santa Marta. Additionally, the cooperative purchased pulping and drying machinery

Sources: http://www.transfairusa.org/content/certification/producer_new.php?floid=3395

Products Produced by this Co-op