Manos Campesinas...A Guatemalan Coffee Success Story

Manos Campesinas Asociación Civil de Pequeños Productores de Café, (Farmer's Hands--the Association of Small Coffee Producers), is an umbrella organization, founded in 1997 and made up of eight grassroots organizations in four geographic departments of Guatemala.

The main goal of the organization is the commercialization of the product of its members, preferably to the international market, under the conditions of the Fairtrade market by lending technical support and promoting and marketing their coffee. Manos Campesinas is registered with the FLO. (Fairtrade Labeling Organization.)

Click here to visit Café Campesino Fair Trade Organic Coffees

Today it has 1,073 members organized in seven cooperatives, in the departments of San Marcos, Quetzaltenango, Retalhuleu and Solola, and, with family size averaging 5-7 people, provides income for approximately 3,720 people!

Most of these farmers are smallholders and have less than 2 1/4 acres each to grow coffee.

In their first season, they were happy to export one shipping container (38,000 pounds).

The following year they exported four containers, and over the next three years, that increased to thirteen containers. By 2003 they shipped 16 containers in that year alone, which was 40% of that years' harvest. They currently are exporting 25 containers annually thanks to the growing fair trade coffee movement.

Regular market prices that year were $.35-$.70 per pound. The production cost was about $.45 per pound. The fair trade coffee price was $1.26 so it is easy to see how it makes a huge impact in the farmers' lives and the communities where they live.

Fair trade prices keep farmers on their land while others are forced to emigrate to Mexico and the United States. More money for their crops means food for their families, health care and education, and new and better infrastructure in the communities where they live.

"Since its foundation in 1997, Manos Campesinas has produced and commercialized its coffee as Fair Trade, thereby contributing to improved income for its members and resulting in a better quality of life and less migration to countries like Mexico and the United States."

--- Carlos Reynoso, M.C. General Manager