Building Fair Trade for Small Farmers High in the Andes Mountains of Peru

The cooperative movement in Peru dates back to the 1960s when the government passed an agrarian reform program allowing for the creation of cooperatives. Farm worker union members soon found themselves as the owners of coffee growing lands once belonging to their patrons. At the time, middle level traders were taking coffee on consignment, thereby leaving the farmers with no guarantee of receiving a fair price. Looking for a way to sell their crops without being subject to the caprice of these intermediaries, the workers began forming cooperatives.

Seven coffee cooperatives, consisting solely of producers in the two valleys of La Convención and Lares, decided to unite their efforts by establishing a "second level" or marketing cooperative.

From this effort, the Agrarian Cooperative of La Convención and Lares, Ltd. #281, was formed on July 26th, 1967. On September 3, 1991, the by-laws were altered and the name was changed to the Agrarian Coffee Cooperative, Ltd. #281, also known by the acronym COCLA. The new by-laws were established by the seven founding cooperatives, which later integrated other cooperatives.

Initially the cooperative provided warehousing services, processing, insurance, and accounting services. Later, a Coffee Sales and Financing service was added. Other services which followed soon afterward including business management training, agricultural extension services, and cooperative organizational development assistance.

Today, COCLA is an organization on the cutting edge of the national coffee industry and the cooperative movement, and is becoming stronger socially, economically, and technically.

In achieving social change, COCLA integrates 4,200 small scale farming families in the valleys of La Convención and Yanatile. Sister cooperatives in the other areas of Ayacucho, Puno, Huánuco, and Cajamarca also use the services of COCLA.

• COCLA's Women's Program.
  
  
• Equal Exchange brought a COCLA representative and a coffee farmer to the United States in October 2007. Read about the trip.
  
  
• Read about a visit to San Fernando Co-op, a member of COCLA, in September 2008.