{"id":1810,"date":"2016-03-10T07:26:30","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T15:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/?p=1810&lang=en"},"modified":"2016-03-15T16:07:54","modified_gmt":"2016-03-16T00:07:54","slug":"organized-bean-by-bean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/economy\/organized-bean-by-bean\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Xela’s Caf\u00e9 Armon\u00eda: An ethical business model"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Patricia Mac\u00edas L\u00f3pez –\u00a0Entremundos Correspondent<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s harder than you\u2019d think to enjoy a cup of organic and fair-trade coffee in Guatemala. The majority of the coffee produced here is exported, and grown on large plantations owned by very few and worked by many in abysmal labor conditions. It\u2019s difficult for small producers to compete with the industrial-scale producers, even without considering factors like taxes, tariffs, the widespread predatory practices of middlemen, and even the effects of climate change as plant diseases like the fungus la roya enjoy longer summers, droughts become more common, and rainfall becomes harder to predict.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_7102<\/a><\/p>\n

Manos Campesinas (Farmer Hands) and ASOBAGRI (the Barillense Association of Farmers) are two successful Guatemalan coffee cooperatives. Manos Campesinas is a second-level organization (local cooperatives are considered the first level) that involves over 1,000 small producers and principally manages the commercialization of the producers\u2019 coffee, all of which is certified organic. The organization was born in 2000 and in the words of its manager, Carlos Reynoso, \u2018The idea to create a movement of small producers was the seed of Manos Campesinas. In that time, the idea of organic production didn\u2019t exist; everything was conventional, and even the quality of the coffee wasn\u2019t very valued. But from the very beginning of Manos Campesinas, the board of directors and others said, \u2018\u2018Let\u2019s work naturally. We can\u2019t lose sight of this\u2026 We\u2019re going to continue to protect the rivers, and continue to protect the land.\u2019\u2019\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Beyond caring for the environment, the fundamental job of these organizations is to assure that their farmers, who in the case of Manos Campesinas own on average one hectare of land, work in good conditions and make a fair wage. Large scale coffee production allows plantations to underprice small producers, since they pay low wages and don\u2019t have to work with middlemen. Organizations of small producers can make them big, and make their product competitive with large producers. Second-level organizations are larger and can therefore negotiate prices, sell in bulk, and look for reliable markets. They also incentivize and promote grassroots self-organization of campesino collectives by increasing benefits, all of which leads to sustainability.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018If we didn\u2019t exist and these market conditions didn\u2019t exist, I\u2019m sure that many of these producers today wouldn\u2019t be producers because the prices wouldn\u2019t have compensated their work,\u2019 said Reynoso. He added, \u2018Having stable markets, which allow us to negociate prices, allows them to spend all year working their own property, and not to have to go somewhere else\u2019 where they would likely have to work on a plantation.<\/span><\/p>\n

After 15 years of work, a new initiative has emerged: Caf\u00e9 Armon\u00eda opened in Xela in september, 2014. It\u2019s a special initiative because behind it are Manos Campesinas and ASOBAGRI, and so its coffee comes straight from the small producers that make up these organizations. Reynoso said, \u2018Caf\u00e9 Armon\u00eda is our first experience. We want to offer a product of the highest quality, a product that\u2019s wholesome, a product from small producers.\u2019 Further, \u2018The other caf\u00e9s are owned by one or two propietors. This caf\u00e9 belongs to all of the farmers.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

The baristas working in the caf\u00e9 are children of members of the cooperatives. They were selected and then were professionally trained. Ondina Victoria, one of the workers who comes from the small coffee-growing community of Loma Linda, explained, \u2018Caf\u00e9 Armon\u00eda is a family.\u2019 It\u2019s a family that works together from the coffee plant to the coffee mug to deliver competitively-priced coffee that\u2019s cooperative, organic, high quality, and provides fair wages to those in each step of production.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Patricia Mac\u00edas L\u00f3pez –\u00a0Entremundos Correspondent It\u2019s harder than you\u2019d think to enjoy a cup of organic and fair-trade coffee in Guatemala. The majority of the coffee produced here is exported, and grown on large plantations owned by very few and worked by many in abysmal labor conditions. It\u2019s difficult for small producers to compete […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[411,410,435],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alternative-economy","category-economy","category-xela-en"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/img_7102-copia.jpg?fit=4272%2C2848&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7ljt7-tc","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4943,"url":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/xela-guide\/craft-beer-in-xela\/?lang=en","url_meta":{"origin":1810,"position":0},"title":"Craft beer in Xela – where to go and what to drink","author":"EntreMundos","date":"14 noviembre, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"With the ubiquity of Guatemalan mainstays Cabro and Gallo, it's easy to feel like cheap lager is all that the country's breweries have to offer, but this is simply not the case. 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Each item on the menu has been created so that you can\u2026","rel":"","context":"En \u00abFood\u00bb","block_context":{"text":"Food","link":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/category\/xela-guide\/food\/?lang=en"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/desayuno-huevos-revueltos-tocino-plato-cafe-negro-fondo-alimentos-endecha-plana_290947-1423.jpg?fit=417%2C626&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9007,"url":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/xela-en\/pop-wuj-spanish-school\/?lang=en","url_meta":{"origin":1810,"position":2},"title":"Pop Wuj Spanish School","author":"EntreMundos","date":"21 julio, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Pop Wuj Association Spanish Studies Centre is a school that was founded in 1992 and is located in the heart of Quetzaltenango, very near to markets, theatres, and the city\u2019s nightlife. 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