The Peru Floods And Landslides Of March 2023

A year ago, Peru experienced an environmental disaster with devastating large-scale floods and landslides. According to the Humanitarian National Network, these impacted farming communities, including 517,000 people and 85,000 households, destroyed crops, and sadly resulted in 71 casualties (1).

Read on to learn more about what happened, how we responded, and how every coffee purchase you make allows us to help out in situations like this.

A National State Of Emergency In 2023

In early March of 2023, the Government of Peru declared the highest level of National Emergency in 1,030 districts for the northern regions of Lambayeque, Piura, and Tumbes due to the floods, heavy rains, and landslides brought about by Cyclone Yaku, Peru’s first cyclone in four decades (2).

Peru In 2024

Unfortunately, Peru is still experiencing damaging floods, landslides, and severe weather in the southern Departments of Cusco and San Martìn with the overflow of the Chaychapampa, Chontayacu, and Tomás Rivers (3). Furthermore, political instability puts Peru in a vulnerable state for future unrest (4).

Equator Coffee Roasters’ Response

All-year-round Equator Coffee Roasters donates 10 cents per pound of coffee sold via our B Corp initiative to organizations and charities that support coffee farming communities around the world. This is usually based on need. So during this State of Emergency last year, we donated $10,000 collected from coffee sales to Coop Norandino, formerly known as CEPICAFE, which is situated in the Piura region and helped out with disaster relief in these communities (5).

To learn more about our B Corp status and contributions, check out our article here.

History Of Norandino

Founded in March of 1995 with 200 members, Coop Norandino has since grown to a total of 6,000 members representing producers of coffee and sugar cane from northeastern Peru’s Piuran mountains. Their main goals are to bolster their cooperative, enhance their international ties, and to sell all of their coffee to the specialty market. Using certified organic practices to improve overall production and quality, their export of coffee has expanded from 550 qq to 40,000 qq into Asian, European, and North American specialty markets. With access to financing via the Norandino umbrella of member organizations, farmers have diversified their production base to entail crafts, cocoa, jams, raw brown sugar (panela), and tourism.

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