Nicaragua

CECOCAFEN, the Coffee Cooperatives Central in the Northern Regions, is an umbrella organization promoting and selling quality coffees from nine cooperatives. CECOCAFEN is located in the Matagalpa region of Nicaragua. The fertile, rich soils and temperate climates in the highlands (1200-1400 meters) are ideal for producing high quality coffee.

CECOCAFEN started with 500 producers. Today, more than 2,000 families are members. For the 2005-2006 harvest period , the national market price for a quintal of coffee was 110 dollars, whereas CECOCAFEN received an average price of 134 dollars a quintal.

For the 2005-2006 production period, they had access to more than 6 million dollars in credit. Credit access allows members of CECOCAFEN to cover the expenses of the harvest until they are paid by buyers. The increased income gained from selling fair trade has also allowed community women's groups to participate in a micro-savings and loan programs, facilitating a variety of production projects and simply putting more food on the table.

Their Fair Trade coffee sales have grown steadily allowing for:

-more children to participate in CECOCAFEN's high school, technical training and university scholarship program. These young students are studying careers related to life in the cooperatives. In exchange they provide 100 hours of work to the organization. They help provide a service of adult education in the cooperative. In one year, 32 young people helped 375 adults to learn how to read and write.

- CECOCAFEN to purchase the SolCafé processing plant, equipped with drying beds, a complete line of sorting machines and a cupping laboratory. Internalizing the steps for processing and testing allows CECOCAFEN to improve quality control and to negotiate significantly better prices for the farmers.

In the future, CECOCAFEN will try to be more competitive. They will try to increase the productive yield of their plantation to lower costs of production, maintain coffee quality, and improve the standard of living of their members. They would like to increase their sale of coffee and reach better prices for it. They will also try to diversify their production.

At Desert Sun, we are proud to partner with CECOCAFEN, and to be able to play a part in creating dignified solutions to the problems these farmers confront on a daily basis.