CORSICANA - Collin Street Bakery

Collin Street Bakery (or CORSICANA) has been baking fruitcakes for over a century in Corsicana, Texas. Always looking for ways to improve their product, they aligned with producers in Costa Rica to start an organic pineapple farm in 1991. The farm, named Finca Corsicana (Corsicana Farm), is located in the fertile slopes of the Mount Poas volcano, in the northern Sarapiqui region of Costa Rica. It is one of the rainiest, tropical forest regions in the world, with more than 6,000 millimeters of rain per year. The farm is surrounded by high altitude cloud forests and waterfalls. More than 38 million organic certified pineapples are produced each year and production is growing consistently in terms of area and number of workers. Collin Street Bakery became Fair Trade Certified™ in late 2009 to address the needs of an expanding workforce in this rural area of Costa Rica. Some of the challenges faced by CORSICANA workers include lack of education, child care and health care options. The organization believes Fair Trade organizes and empowers workers to develop and implement their own projects. Fair Trade certification also guarantees workers earn decent wages to provide for their families.