We often source coffees for our Fair Trade Organic Breakfast Blend from the Unión Regional de Pequeños Productores de Café, in Huatusco, Mexico. The cooperative was formed in 1992 by a group of small-scale family farmers who decided to take responsibility for lifting their community out of the extreme poverty they faced. Their success has been remarkable, and today the coop boasts more than 1,908 small farmers among its members, including 600 women.
The increased revenue that Fair Trade and Organic coffee provides the farmers in this coop has enabled them to establish education facilities in rural areas, and build regional healthcare centers for several villages.
Ecologically-minded, they've also used Fair Trade revenues to fund a reforestation program, while training their members in shade-tree cultivation and terracing, and to improve and expand their organic program, which now includes nearly 500 of its member farmers.