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Coffee collective works to help small producers

By RICHARD SITLER
Indiana Correspondent

JINOTENGA, Nicaragua — Many of the coffee groves in Nicaragua are tucked into the rich soils of the Isabella mountains in the north central region of Jinotenga. In the community of Yalí, where the constant mist is sometimes interrupted by a rain shower, it is the ideal environment for coffee.

While looking at the coffee groves, a popular Merengue song titled May It Rain Coffee in the Countryside, by Juan Luis Guerra of the Dominican Republic, appears to have come to life.

It certainly appeared to have rained coffee in the mountains. The view of the mist-shrouded terrain of the coffee farms appears bucolic and tranquil. For coffee farmers of the area, though, it is a hard life of living hand to mouth.

Carolos G. Murillo Martinez is the director of Universidad Earth/LA Flor Centro Daniel Oduber and an expert in sustainable agriculture practices. He said the coffee industry is more complicated than people realize. Coffee goes through many stages of production from after the beans are picked from the plants to before the finished product is bought in stores, Martinez explained.

The method of growing and transporting the crop to be processed is not easy. Martinez said the whole practice is energy intensive and farmers receive only a small percent of the revenue.

In Jinotenga, Nicaragua, there is a collective of coffee farmers called Soppexcca, Union de Cooperativas Agropecuarias. This collective works to make this process better for the small farms in the region.

The Soppexcca mission is “to create an entrepreneurial organization that is socially and environmentally responsible and that promotes community participation.”

José Antonio Talavera is a coffee farmer and the secretary of the Soppexcca Board of Directors. He explained that prices are set by the markets in New York.

“Sometimes coffee prices are excellent. Sometimes it falls and is awful,” Talavera reported.

Because of this fluctuation, Talavera said the Soppexcca cooperative helps small coffee farms to get through times of crisis when the market price drops.

Soppexcca has existed since 1997. There are 700 farmers in 18 different cooperatives that are served by the organization, which is headquartered in the City of Mists – the nickname for Jinotenga.
According to Talavera the farmers, of whom 35 percent are women, turn in raw beans to the cooperative where they go through an initial process. It is too humid in Jinotenga to completely dry the beans to a completely processed product. Also, individual buyers will toast beans to their specific needs.

Coffee is a major cash crop for Nicaragua.

Talavera estimated that 80 percent of all coffee grown in the Central American country is exported to countries such as the United States, Germany and Ireland. Soppexcca even has its own brand called Flor de Jinotega. Some of it has found its way to the United States to specialty coffee dealers.

Because of the cooperative’s membership in the Fair Trade Market, farmers are able to get a consistent return for their beans. The membership cost for Soppexcca to belong to the market is $3,000 a year. That would be prohibitive for small cooperatives or individual farmers. By joining together the farmers are guaranteed a set price.

Talavera, age 43, is good example of the farmers served by Soppexcca. He started farming for himself in 1988. Before he was able to buy his own farm, Talavera worked as a laborer on larger coffee plantations. He said he always enjoyed working with coffee.
Farmers like Talavera get more from their union of cooperatives than consistent returns on their beans. According to the agency, “(Soppexcca works) according to principles of active integration, promoting equality between men and women within the organization, within each cooperative and within the communities at large.”

Talavera said Soppexcca works to strengthen member organizations, individual farmers and the community. The agency sponsors training programs in sustainable coffee production, community and cooperative organization and participation, human rights and self-esteem, quality control, processing and organic fertilizers, product diversification and food security, environmental and social protection and health promotion and illness prevention.
The agency encourages diversification including projects in cocoa production, large and medium scale production of cattle as well as other livestock, and reforestation with citric and woods for the lumber industry.

Soppexcca assists its community with the distribution of educational packs and uniforms for school children. The collective also allocates scholarships for disadvantaged students, builds schools in rural communities, establishes rural libraries, promotes the arts, and trains residents for disaster preparedness –an essential skill for those who live in a country that has a history of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other natural disasters.

In the humid, cloudy, sub-tropical climate of coffee country, the agency works to assist farmers – most living in wood shacks and carving out a living in one of the highest altitude regions in Nicaragua. The coffee grown in the rich soils of the Nicaraguan hillsides and mountains at an average altitude of 1,200 meters above sea level with temperatures ranging from 18-22 degrees Celsius.

Jinotenga is approximately 168 kilometers from the capital city of Managua. Jinotenga accounts for 65 percent of the country’s coffee output. The City of Mists has a population of 257,933.

11/11/2009