Current Project Guatemala

Added Value for Indigenous Mountain Coffee Farmers in Guatemala

The Diocese of Colorado Springs with the help of Earth Friendly Coffee and the Earth Friendly Foundation promoted a grant proposal through CRS Guatemala for building a processing infrastructure for the Cooperativas of Acoderol, Olopa and the families they represent. CRS is a very large US charity organization and a trading partner in promoting this sort of project. As with any large grant through the bureaucracy of a big organization there are administrative considerations. This grant may or may not come to pass. If it does not, we will continue with our more modest direct channeling of funds and help Olopa develop their drying patio which was our original intent.Earth Friendly Foundation,

EFF does not handle funds for this or any other project. Rather we direct resources to the indigenous people and their own cooperative efforts toward their own economic and agricultural development. EFF operates without administrative overhead through the use of a trust/escrow account. We believe that the farmers know best what works and what is in their own best interest. Direct funding avoids entanglements and disappointments.

The only restrictions to the farmers’ use of EFF directed funding asks that:
1) Purchases at premium prices, (greater than "Fair Trade") must be competitive for the highest quality beans,
2) Must be Chemical Free NGM agricultural practices,
3) Must follow environmentally responsible cultivation and processing with special concern for waste water and erosion.
4) Must insure that indigenous farmers are actually the beneficiaries of the funds involved.
5) We encourage local indigenous roasting and vertical integration of the processing in order that the supply side be efficiently integrated rather than exploited. The mission as stated poses a challenge for a small import company, but it makes the coffee taste so much better.

Strengthening of Coffee Processing Techniques and Infrastructure in Olopa (proposed date August 2007 – March 2008) Background Information & Project Summary

The Coordinating Association for Rural Development in Olopa (ACODEROL, for its initials in Spanish) was founded in the department (province) of Chiquimula in 1998 with the main purpose of supporting rural development initiatives in the communities that comprise the municipality of Olopa. It is currently made up of 367 indigenous Maya Chortí members, of which 55 are small-scale coffee farmers.

Each of the small scale coffee farmers cultivates his precious hectares (10,000 sq m) of coffee trees in an area ranging in size between 7,000- 14,000 square meters, at an altitude of 1,400 meters (4,500') above sea level. They produce strictly Hard-Bean, SHB Arabica, an aromatic coffee, rich in body and flavor. This is a green, compact, even, medium bodied coffee bean, with a closed fissure. The roasting turns the beans dark brown, with corrugated texture, a closed irregular fissure and very compact. ACODERROL produces approximately 46,040 kgs. of coffee beans per year.

Currently, the coffee producers mill the ripe cherry with the help of their families and do the processing in their own homes. Solar drying of the beans has become difficult because of the cloudy weather, which slows the drying process and in turn can lead to moldiness. As a consequence, there is an inconsistency in the quality of the bean, which in turn has a negative effect on the sale price.

The coffee producers from ACODEROL have expressed their strong interest in building their own coffee processing infrastructure. Their goal is to increase the income of the 55 coffee producers from ACODEROL by strengthening their technical and organizational capacity for coffee processing, and ultimately increasing the sales volume of their coffee.

Additionally, a Guatemala based agricultural education program would allow participating coffee farmers to receive training, better organize themselves, and have access to infrastructure and equipment necessary to carry out coffee processing activities collectively in order to improve their coffee processing techniques and to meet quality standards of international markets.

Goals:
1) Organize farmers for collecting and selling their coffee.
2) Establish a communal concrete patio (1,225 mts2) to dry producers’ coffee.
3) Build a warehouse for coffee storage.
4) Design and implement a training program for 55 small-scale coffee producers --- in coffee processing and management for commercial purposes
5) Coordinate with the National Coffee Association.
6) Build a wet coffee processing infrastructure “beneficio húmedo” (for depulping, washing and fermentation) The wet-mill will be used by, not only the ACODEROL members, but also other farmers that need to use it.

EFF has a special interest in this project because we have a close relationship with the farmers in this region. We want to see the farmers prosper by their own initiative, and this plan is theirs, although expanded in some ways. Some very fine people in Guatemala have been responsive and dedicated in developing this proposal, and we pray they succeed. Also, some very dedicated and caring people in the Diocese of Colorado Springs initiated this proposal, and they have a great interest in connecting directly with the names and places and with the coffee farmers of the Acoderol cooperativa in whatever way they can. We hope this project evolves.

CRS US asks not to post the financial and or details of the grant request and not to make contributions to the project pending the application review process. (The above link is password protected)