ALTA MONTAÑA
COOPERATIVE
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MUSTEFA
ABAKENO
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COMSA

WASHED
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NATURAL
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NATURAL

Peru - Alta Montaña

Situated within the Amazonas region of Peru, the Alta Montaña Cooperative is made up of coffee producers from the region’s provinces of Rodríguez de Mendoza, Chachapoyas, Luya, Utcubamba and Bagua. The Cooperative actively seeks to improve the quality of life for its members through strong quality harvests, organic certification and complementary economic activities, such as marketing of crops and business management support. As well as coffee, the cooperative supports the wider community by participating in schemes that aim to improve the quality of local cattle, fisheries and aquaculture, as well as the planting of bio gardens within nearby towns and districts.

Ethiopia - Kabira Natural

Mustefa Abakeno is a smallholder with 18 hectares of land near Agaro in the Jimma Zone of Western Ethiopia. His farm is located at 2,040masl and is planted with coffee varieties from the Jimma research centre. He has a small disc pulper that he uses to wash-process half of his coffee whilst the other half is dried as a natural process for 24-27 days on the African (raised) beds. Mustefa has also set up two mills called 'Beshasha' and 'Kabira' to process his and his neighbours' coffee. Due to subtle differences in location and microclimate, Beshasha almost exclusively processes washed lots, whilst Kabira, which has more space for drying beds, is more suited to processing naturals.

Honduras - Comsa Natural

Originally starting out as a group of 45 farmers in 2000, COMSA was officially founded as a cooperative in 2001 with 65 farmers. Within their first year they realised that there were distinct advantages to selling their coffee through the organic market. At a time when farmers in the area were abandoning their farms due to the global coffee price crisis the decision was made to focus on certified coffees and consequently, gain the premiums that having certification afforded. COMSA became Fairtrade certified in 2005, and their coffee is now produced 100% Fairtrade and Organic.

Although the average member farm is 3.8 hectares, COMSA have a 110 hectare farm called “Finca La Fortaleza” which they use to showcase how to effectively run an organic farm. They run week-long training camps at the farm, centred on organic best practises, and allow all their members to attend for free. On top of this, free help and support in becoming fully organic certified is offered to any producers wishing to join the cooperative.