Outlier

Despite support from the Catholic Diocese of Quetzaltenango, farmers still lacked the means to bring their product to market, and had to resort to selling to middlemen, “coyotes”, who cut them out of the greater market. It was with the goal of gaining direct access to international buyers that the Asociación de Pequeños Productores de Café Manos Campesinas was conceived in 1996. Organized as a secondary level organization, the cooperative developed direct export channels for a founding group of 6 farmer associations. Today, Manos Campesinas is comprised of 13 cooperative groups across the departments of San Marcos, Quetzaltenango, Sololá and Chimaltenango, and it represents over 1,200 farming families.