Fair Trade Reflections From El Salvador

As Jackie described in Three Coffee Countries in Eight Days, Simone Blanchard of the CRS Southeast office in Atlanta hit the coffee trail last week. While she wasn’t able to blog during her trip she’s come back ready to share her reflections.

Baruch 4:22-23

Deliver us, O Lord, from our bondage as streams in dry land. Those who are sowing in tears will sing when they reap. They go out, they go out, full of tears, carrying seed for the sowing: They come back, they come back, full of song, carrying their sheaves.

It is difficult to describe the profound experience that I had while visiting a tiny coffee farmer cooperative in the mountains of El Salvador. Everything I have learned about Fair Trade in the last two years finally came to life for me. To see the real struggle of real people trying to make a living from the lush land was an extremely moving experience. I had the honor of traveling with a group of 6 people representing Cooperative Coffees, a cooperative of fair trade coffee roaster/companies in the US. Our delegation was there to celebrate the recent fair trade organic coffee sale of this tiny El Salvadorian 25 family farmer cooperative named ACOES. A couple of months ago the farmers struggled to put together a half container of coffee (25,000lbs) to ship to Cooperative Coffees. This was the first time ever that the farmers had sold directly to a fair trade buyer.  The trip was intended to show our solidarity with the farmers and to build long term relationships.

The coffee path

The first evening we jumped in the back of a pick up truck and drove on a treacherous dirt road through the mountains for 20 minutes into the thick forest where the farmers lived. We hiked up 1,500 feet through wild lush vegetation and hundreds of coffee plants. The steep path weaved around trees, plants, roots and vines. I fell twice and had to stop 3 times to catch my breath while the other more experienced hikers and farmers efficiently sped to the top. Thank God for Don Rojelio, the President of the farmer cooperative ACOES. He stayed right behind me even when I urged him to go ahead. Every time I stopped to rest he would say, “We’re almost there, we’re almost there, just a little farther”.  Physically, the hike was difficult for me, but emotionally it was torture. I could not imagine hiking those steep mountains, picking coffee cherries, carrying 100 lb. bags of coffee cherries down the miles of treacherous path and then climbing back up and doing it all over again! Knowing all the while that I would barely cover my costs of harvesting the coffee and after the loans were paid and everyone took their cut, I wouldn’t even have enough to feed my family 3 meals a day. I think if I was born into that difficult of a life, I would surely have left looking for greener pastures. In fact many of the children have left. Most of the farmers are in their mid 50s and the 20-40 year old generation is missing.

Simone Blanchard at the top of the mountain

When I finally reached the top and joined my friends, I could not breathe, as I gasped for air the tremendous guilt I felt for being born into such a privileged life engulfed my spirit . I took in the beautiful view, and then began my descent down the mountain side. As I stumbled down on my bottom grasping onto anything I could, a vicious refrain rolled around in my head, “They work so hard and they earn so little, they work so hard and they earn so little, they work so hard and they earn so little…” The following days were filled with meetings with the farmers, learning about the politics of fair trade, the complexities of organic farming, and listening to Don Rojelio talk about risking his life for the land and his people during the war and the agrarian reform of the early 1990’s.

Don Rojelio

For the farmers, selling their coffee into the organic fair trade market was a struggle of tremendous proportions. Due to their extreme isolation living in a tiny village without electricity or transportation, the farmers were not quick to trust anyone, especially foreigners. Unlike other cooperatives, ACOES does not have the equipment or infrastructure necessary to process their own coffee. Hence they were heavily indebted to the local beneficiary who picked up their coffee in his truck and processed it.  A couple of years ago a professor from the University of Vermont, Dr. Mendez, was doing research on indigenous trees and plants in the region. He fell in love with the farmers and started an NGO to serve as a technical assistance agency for the farmer cooperatives in the area. ASINDEC helped to form a couple of local cooperatives into an association of cooperatives, ACOES, and looked for an appropriate buyer who was interested in buying their coffee at a fair price and maintaining a long term relationship with the cooperative. Along came Cooperative Coffees from Americus GA. At first the farmers were very suspicious because in their 30 + years of farming, they never met a buyer face to face that would buy, roast, and sell their coffee to the public.

ACOES

I had to hold back my tears as farmer after farmer gave thanks to the Lord for giving them the strength to continue in the struggle and thanks to us for coming to their homes, sleeping on their floor, sharing meals, and buying and serving their coffee. One of the members seemed to sum it all up when he said, “You are part of our family now”. As I watched the farmers taste for the very first time, their coffee that members of our group had roasted and brought, and I listened to the their challenges ahead with financing, infrastructure, isolation and basic needs, Don Rogelio’s smile came to mind and his encouraging words gave me hope for these faithful farmers, “We’re almost there, we’re almost there, just a little bit further, we’re almost there.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 and is filed under Fair Trade . You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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