CAC Pangoa Coop:
Just east of the Andean mountain range in Central America is the Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera Pangoa. CAC Pangoa was founded in 1977 by 50 farmers from the town of San Martin de Pangoa, who had splintered from the larger and older Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera Satipo due to the distance between their town and Satipo. In the early 1980s, Pangoa grew to nearly 1,700 members, and the future looked very promising. With an internal agreement to set aside 3 percent of every sale for internal investments, members were able to build much of the infrastructure that is still in use today.
However, the 1980s ushered in the turbulent era commonly known as “El Periodo del Terrorismo” which lasted for 20 years. The militant group, the Shining Path, swept through what had been a remarkably peaceful area of Peru, killing thousands of innocent people and carrying out a dreadfully effective fear campaign. As a result, Pangoa lost hundreds of farmers who fled to the cities in order to escape the violence. Since then, it has slowly regained membership and today has nearly 700 farmers...
For more information about CAC Pangoa Coop, please click here.
Rio Azul Coop:
Located in the remote western Guatemalan town of Jacaltenango, Coop Rio Azul has 210 members, 43 of whom are women. All members of the cooperative are of the Mayan group Jacaltec, also commonly called Pobp’ al Ti’ or Popti people. Founded in 1967, the cooperative has a long history of producing some of the best coffee exported under the famed “Huehuetenango” mark.
The members of Rio Azul all live no more than a 1.5 hour walk to the wet mill in Jacaltenango. This allows the cooperative complete control over several stages of the quality process. Coffee is picked by members until early afternoon and then delivered in cherry form to the mill each afternoon. The coffee is de-pulped, fermented and washed at the centralized wet-mill and then spread out to sun-dry on the adjacent patios. The parchment is stored in their warehouse awaiting export. As the shipping day approaches the coffee is transferred to Guatemala City for final processing and export preparation in an organic dry mill....
For more information about Rio Azul Coop, please click here.
