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Written by Beth Ann Caspersen
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As a little girl, I remember seeing Juan Valdez on the TV greeting me with “Buenos Dias,” a cup of steaming coffee in his hand. Senior Valdez, with his sense of graciousness and well-being represented the essential coffee farmer for millions of Americans like myself. Created by the Colombia Coffee Growers Association, Juan Valdez was one of the most successful advertising personalities in the history of television. However, missing from this image was the sense of the hardship and complexity of the Colombian coffee trade. This past fall I traveled to Colombia to learn more about the reality for Equal Exchange’s coffee trading partners.
We first arrived at the State of Caldas, Colombia and the small town of Rio Sucio, where CCAOC is located. In the past, there was a tense atmosphere in Rio Sucio due to an ever-present fear of violence. Colombian towns and villages like Rio Sucio have been plagued for decades by civil war, poorly executed land reform, and political battles. But on a cool fall evening this past November, it was obvious that the situation had improved. The streets of the town were lively, with young people kicking a soccer ball in the park and shop keepers chatting with their customers in front of their stores. The sound of music filled the air. Increased police presence has kept crime at a minimum and has created a more open environment for town residents.
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Fabio Morales, an organic farmer
from the village of Las Minas
in Riosucio in Colombia.
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CCAOC: Equal Exchange's Colombian Coffee Partner
Our relationship with our Colombian partner, La Cooperativa del Alto Occidente de Caldas (CCAOC), is now ten years strong. In 1993, CCAOC was the first cooperative in Colombia to export certified Fair Trade coffee into the international coffee market. Equal Exchange started buying coffee from the co-op two years later. Equal Exchange expanded our Colombian selection and began offering organic Colombian coffee to consumers in 2004. The organic coffee program for CCAOC is only 4 years old, and the producers that decided to transition to organic received technical support at the farm level and economic support to move the project forward. Our visit was met with enthusiasm, many emotional and grateful producers and new ideas to deepen the relationship.
When we visited the co-op this past November, we were hoping to see how CCAOC had expanded as a result of Fair Trade purchases, to learn more about CCAOC’s social programs for its members, and, of course, to purchase some tasty coffee. Today there are more than 2,000 members of CCAOC growing both organic and conventional coffee.Over the past three years, Equal Exchange has doubled its purchases of green coffee from the co-op.
On our first day at the co-op, we spent several hours in the new coffee “cupping laboratory” tasting the fruit of the Colombian harvest. Not only were we impressed by the fantastic quality control systems that they had in place, we were thrilled to meet Hernando Antonio, a young coffee cupper with great energy and passion about coffee. Several years ago given the competitive Colombian coffee market, CCAOC invested heavily in quality improvements and education for its membership. As a result the co-op has vastly improved its infrastructure for members which includes all aspects of proper processing: from raising specific seedling varieties to producer cupping forums that teach producers about the fine attributes of their coffee.
We spent our second day hiking though the rain from one small coffee farm to the next witnessing the health and beauty of well-cared-for coffee trees. Members of the cooperative displayed their trees with pride while they described the compost and fertilization methods on their farms and the benefits of being part of a cooperative. Each farm was inspiring, from producers’ understanding of the processing steps, to waste used to create biofuel, to the ecological concern seen in the plant filtration used to clean gray water after washing dishes and laundry. All of the farms were well organized and had similar systems for taking care of the coffee and the environment.
The following day we met with 70 representatives from the cooperative to tell them about Equal Exchange’s cooperative model, the specialty coffee market in the United States, the education we provide to consumers about coffee from small farmer cooperatives and our strict standards for quality. Equal Exchange is proud to be part of the cooperative and Fair Trade movement in Colombia. Over the past four years sales of our Colombian coffee have doubled and the impact of this was obvious at the cooperative level. Our producer partners have benefited from your purchases by receiving a great price for their coffee and support for the next generation of coffee farmers. CCAOC is organized and successful. Premiums from Fair Trade purchases have been put to a variety of good uses: construction of a secondary school, training to improve coffee processing methods, and the encouragement of organic cultivation and cooperation. You can support these CCAOC producers by drinking any of our conventional, organic, or decaffeinated Colombian coffees.
Snapshot: Janette Taborda Morales
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At the age of 18, the young Senorita Morales led us on an impressive tour of her farm. She spoke clearly and confidently about the systems they had in place, from the depulping station located in a closed off section of the house, to the drying patio, to the biofuel installation, and the importance of incorporating different kinds of animal manure into their compost. Janette is the beneficiary of a Fair Trade funded scholarship program which enables young people to attend courses at regional technical schools. We were proud to meet the next generation of coffee farmers in Caldas, Colombia and believe that Janette is destined to be a leader in the cooperative. The Morales family are members of CCAOC. The family consists of 5 girls, 3 boys and the 2 parents.
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Janette Taborda Morales (second from left)
is shown here with her family. |
El Programa de la Mujer
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This women’s group has had great impact on the CCOAC community. One of the projects sponsored by the women’s group is to increase home food production, by encouraging members to grow more food to be consumed by the family. In addition to family nutrition, the women’s group continues to work on providing members with natural medicine grown in the area or on their respective farms. Small animal loans also play a prominent role in the program providing the women with the means to enhance their compost through the waste of the animals and provide the family with eggs, goat milk, and meat for their consumption. Proper childhood nutrition is a primary focus and an important project of CCAOC is to subsidize school lunch program in 26 schools. | 
El Programa de la Mujer |
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Our Co-op 
