Sustainable production
Prodecoop
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Location: Latin America
Cooperative of coffee producing farmers in Nicaragua
Nicaragua has the perfect climate for growing coffee. But the chain from growing to selling is long. For small-scale farmers, this road is both too long and too complex. Hivos partner Promotora de Desarrollo Cooperativo de las Segovias (PRODECOOP) opens this road to farmers so that they can escape poverty.
‘We coach small farmers with collecting coffee beans, industrially processing these beans into the coffee product and trading this product,’ says Reynaldo Vásquez, the president of PRODECOOP. ‘But we do more. We also offer technical assistance and credit for the maintenance and renovation of their plots of land. Our goal is for them to eventually be able to maintain their coffee production themselves, and further that they not only take the environment into consideration but also meet high standards of quality. This way they will remain attractive to the international market.’
Because of this goal, and the effective implementation of it, Hivos has been supporting PRODECOOP since 1995. After all, Hivos also has the goal of teaching poor people to provide in their own livelihood – and to do this in a sustainable manner. To date, forty small cooperations in Nicaragua with a total of nearly two thousands farmers have joined PRODECOOP. Including the farmers’ family members, the organization now directly supports more than 10,000 people.
‘The indirect number is even bigger,’ says Vásquez. ‘More than a hundred communities in the central-northern part of Nicaragua currently benefit from the economic impact of our work. When trade flourishes in an area, as it does partly thanks to us in the departments of Estelí, Madriz and Nueva Segovia, more money comes into the area and more jobs are created. Especially in the United States the demand for sustainable coffee is growing, but we also export to Europe, Italy in particular. There you may come across the brand that we successfully launched in the international market: “Sabor a Segovia” (“The flavour of Segovia”)!’
Take a look at the clip of Alexa Marin. She works for Prodecoop.
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