Updates from the Coffeelands

Katy and I are in Nicaragua with a variety of coffee partners who belong to Cooperative Coffees. The event will combine field visits to various coffee cooperatives in the Matagalpa region, where CRS works with the CECOSEMAC cooperative, workshops on pressing issues and meetings involving many of the different stakeholders in the Fair Trade coffee world. CRS staff and partners from Nicaragua and Guatemala have joined us. We’ll report more as we can…stay tuned for more details after we return in October. While we are literally in coffeelands, our good buddy Michael Sheridan was nice enough to compile some updates about the work of some of our partners!

Guatemala: APECAFORM Partners with Cafe Conciencia, Higher Grounds.

CRS has accompanied the APECAFORM coffee cooperative in Guatemala since it was established with the help of the local Church in the early 1990s. In recent years, that support has included two Fair Trade Fund grants to support the efforts of the coop’s women members to roast, grind and package some of their coffee for sale on local markets. The first of these grants helped the women to invest in the kind of roasting technology they need to be competitive in these markets. The second grant has focused on the development of a coherent marketing strategy that allows the women to take fullest advantage of their new roastery. As part of this grant, the CRS program in Guatemala has helped APECAFORM join forces with the Guatemalan non-profit organization Cafe Conciencia, dedicated to helping disadvantaged coffee farmers get a fair share of the value of the coffee they grow. In October, Cafe Conciencia will bring Chris Treter from CRS Fair Trade Program partner Higher Grounds to Guatemala to provide basic roasting instruction to members of the APECAFORM project. Stay tuned to our blog for more information on this initiative as it evolves.

Michigan: Higher Grounds Opens a Coffee Bar!

Jody and Chris Treter, our friends at Higher Grounds Trading Company, just celebrated the grand opening of their new roastery and coffee bar in Traverse City’s Grand Traverse Commons! In addition to serving up some very special coffees, Jody and Chris are using the new space to continue their mission to educate consumers about the impact of Fair Trade on disadvantaged farmers. Please visit if you are ever fortunate enough to be in beautiful northern Michigan, and tell Jody and Chris you heard about them from CRS.

Massachusetts: Dean Publishes a Book…Watch Him on the Colbert Report!

Dean Cycon, Fair Trade swashbuckler and founder of Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee, has written a book called Javatrekker scheduled for publication next month. Dean, as you may have guessed, is the javatrekker, and the book is a compilation of stories of his experiences working and playing in coffeelands together with the farming cooperatives who grow Dean’s Beans coffee. Each chapter features a different country of origin, and Dean will donate the proceeds from the book to the farmers’ organizations he profiles. The book has garnered advance praise from no less than Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon and Nobel laureate Rigoberta Menchu.

CRS Fair Trade has also learned that Dean is “in booking” for The Colbert Report, which means he will be interviewed by fake-news icon Stephen Colbert on the program sometime SOON! Stay tuned to our blog for a full review of the book and details about how you can tune in to watch Dean on the Report!

Mexico: Cafe Justo Partners with SERRV International!

We just learned that two of our Fair Trade Program partners have decided to partner with one another — Cafe Justo (a farmer-owned cooperative based in Chiapas and Agua Prieta, Mexico) and SERRV International (the non-profit Fair Trade Organization we partner with to bring you Work of Human Hands). Beginning in spring 2008, Cafe Justo’s coffee will be available in the Work of Human Hands catalog!

We are always thrilled when we are able to bring our partner organizations together in ways that are beneficial for everyone involved. But we are especially pleased by this partnership since Cafe Justo is a farmer-owned enterprise trying to do something very special — roast its coffee overseas and send it directly to Fair Trade coffee enthusiasts in the United States — and SERRV has experience with precisely this kind of model — it was instrumental in the early 1990s in helping Coocafe of Costa Rica pioneer this approach successfully. We wish both of our partners every success and we hope you will support them in their new partnership!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 and is filed under Fair Trade . You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Updates from the Coffeelands”

1. Jackie Says:
   September 28th, 2007 at 11:08 am

   Our (meaning me and new Program Advisor Katy Cantrell) trip to the Coffeelands is winding up today. In addition to two days traveling in “el campo” of the Matagalpa mountains about 75 farmers, coffee importers, and allies have arrived at the Hotel San Thomas to exchange experiences, debate issues, and do a little business.

   I don’t want to miss any of the fun, the knowledge, or the friendships so forgive the lack of blog postings. Katy and I will be sure to send reflections and photos in the coming weeks!

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