Producer Profiles

Manos Campesinas - Asoc. Civil Pequeños Productores de Café

Asociación Civil de Pequeños Productores de Café Manos Campesinas is an organization composed of eight cooperatives in the regions of Quetzaltenango, San Marcos, Chimaltenango and Sololá in Guatemala. About 90 percent of its members are of Quiché, Mam, Tzutujil and Cackchiquel ethnicitites. Manos Campesinas has been Fair Trade certified since its inception, allowing the organization to break free from reliance on “coyotes” or local coffee buying intermediaries and improve the quality of its products and services.
 

Quotable

“

Fair Trade is not a concept but a reality shared between producers and consumers allowing both to improve without intermediaries. It is a reality where consumers receive a high quality product and producers receive a fair price: a reality based on partnered sustainability.  ”

Miguel Mateo Sebastian, Marketing Director
“

The Fair Trade price of coffee is better than our local market price and thus favors us, the small producers. After the first year, we have been able to use the Fair Trade premium to improve 200 meters of road, allowing us to more efficiently deliver our coffee.  ”

Oscar Oswaldo Mazariegos Ramos, Producer

Programs

New Roads and Organic Training

Manos Campesinas invested some of their Fair Trade Premium in improving the roads between communities and storage facilities. During harvest season the roads can be very difficult to navigate and producers often can not transport coffee to their warehouses. Premium funds were also used to hire technical assistance experts to train producers in new organic techniques.