Just Coffee's Producer Relations team (Matt Earley and Julia Baumgartner) embarked on an ambitious, rainy Central American adventure August 9th to the 18th, traveling tirelessly throughout three central american countries, set on catching up with old friends, hearing about new projects, new challenges, new goals, meeting new producer groups, and strengthening already existing relationships. Each country faces similar, yet distinct issues and through hours and hours of conversations, it became ever so clear the need to challenge ourselves and those around us to be creative in finding alternatives to serious issues that many of our friends down south are facing. We were taken aback by some of the things we learned, but were also left feeling inspired and motivated by the folks we met along the way.

Our travels led us to many offices and coffee farms, meeting with several NGOs and development organizations, working hard to support the work of coffee producers in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, through access to land, better markets, prefinancing, a secure food supply, trainings and workshops, etc.

We began our journey in Nicaragua where we spent two full days digging into the incredible work that the ladies at La FEM are doing. We were caught up on their strategies to promote ideological, political, and economic empowerment of rural women in Nicaragua. Included in these projects are educational classes, an anti violence campaign, sexual and reproductive health clinics, workshops to learn how to use the skills they have to better promote their cooperatives, improvements in their agriculture production for not only coffee, but also basic grains, vegetables, meats, and dairy in an effort to promote food security, and participation in workshops about politics and economics in order to act as subjects rather than objects in the whole system. It seems as though the women organized under La FEM are able to stand up against any obstacle that is thrown their way. Their creativity to improve the wellbeing of rural women in Nicaragua is inspiring; however they did not hesitate to share with us the struggles that still exist. Access to land, machismo, high transportation and production costs, low production levels, droughts and heavy rains, and an overall feeling of swimming upstream are all issues that continue to challenge them. And the bad news: fair trade is still not quite fair. "Especially for us women, we get up at three in the morning to make food, clean the house, get our kids ready for school before we go work in the fields. Some days we work until seven at night and the work is never really done once we get home.  We always have to work double and we never get paid for the work we do in our homes. Although the price is better, it is not exactly what we were hoping for. So, we are analyzing our costs to figure out ways to cut costs and make more money." We were left feeling thankful that our relationship with La FEM is close enough that we can have these types of conversations and work together to find ways to make it work better. Clearly, there is much work to be done. The bond was strengthened as we shared our lament with an unjust system

We said our goodbyes to our dear friends in Esteli, caught the King QUALITAAY bus at four am across the Honduran then Salvadoran borders until we found our way to San Miguel.  Members of APICAFE, an umbrella organization that works with beekeepers and coffee farmers in the area, gave us a lift to their offices in Jucuapa. Here we met with their director, Maria Rosa, learned about their efforts to export for the first time, saw their roaster and storefront as well as the small beneficio they are using to process their coffee.  As we drove along through small towns en route for Las Casitas Cooperative in Alegria, El Salvador, Maria Rosa told stories of gang violence that has plagued their communities.  "A year ago today my brother was killed by gang members while working as a carpenter at that house right there," she tells me as we drive through what seems to be a quiet neighborhood. Murders and extortions are on the rise, and unfortunately, not even the countryside is free of mareros.

We drove down the cobblestone road into Las Casitas Cooperative, a small group of coffee producers organized under APICAFE, energized and motivated to start exporting. The guys took a break from clearing out a large chunk of land, which will be used to plant vegetables, a project donated by the Ministry of Agriculture to promote food security. This group has never exported before and sells their coffee in cherry form to middlemen who work for larger processing facilities.  Las Casitas is lucky to have the support of Sebastian, an organic agriculture guru in the area who has supported them in fabricating a special organic fertilizer blend, which has magically transformed many of the coffee trees into beautifully producing plants.  

Although they have never tested their quality since they have never exported, the Bourbon plants were bursting with cherries in a way that we had never seen before in plants of that age. The canopy of trees and the wildlife in the groves also indicated a very healthy organic environment. We were very impressed and excited with their work. They are more than eager to start exporting and find ways to participate in better markets and hopefully this will be possible in the coming years with help from their cooperative and organization with APICAFE.  After our tour we said goodbye and made our way to the top of the mountain to a little village called Alegria (happiness in English). It was totally gorgeous and devoid of any other "turistas". A wonderful place to check out and eat pupusas if you ever find yourself in that area. 

A couple of meals of beans and tortillas later, we headed back down the mountain to Las Marias 93 Cooperative. This group is made up of 64 ex-combatants who are growing coffee on the same lands that were used to fight during the 12 year civil war. Thanks to their incredible organization and access to other resources, they are nearly able to close the whole coffee chain on site. Coffee can be transformed from seedling to roasted and ground on their facilities and soon they are hoping to open up their own café.  Las Marias has been exporting a container of coffee a year to the US through a commercial importer. We spent a long time talking with them about their politics, their beliefs, their hopes, and their expectations. Given the context of violence in which they live, we were especially impressed by their ability to incorporate youth into their development plan, providing alternatives to gang participation. After talking about both of our organizations we were all excited about the prospects of forming a relationship. Between the quality of their organization and the quality of their coffee, we hope to bring you Las Marias coffee in the very near future. 

On Friday we packed up, said adios to Alegria, and left for Guatemala. After a long, long day of travel we arrived at Hotel Dos Lunas-- our regular haunt in Guatemala City. Early the next morning we bussed to Xela to meet up with DESGUA (a great NGO that works on migration issues in Guate and the US) and to see their new cafe and restaurant called "Cafe Red". We had a great lunch and coffee, caught up on their work, and then headed out with one of their members to Santa Anita.

We arrived in the Santa Anita community and caught up with the Tufts team there as well as some of the people from the community. We spent the evening talking with friends and recounting the time that we have spent there over the past seven years. The next morning we met with two different teams representing the growers in Santa Anita and heard about their initiatives to reorganize the co-op and production. With questions about how this will happen, we spent our time listening to the people of the co-op and getting a handle on the new structures being put in place and offering our support in helping out in any way that we can. We also met with representatives from two other local cooperatives (La Suiza and Blanca Flor) and heard about a pilot CRS project that is hoping to involve these groups.

The evening was spent decompressing back in Xela-- having a couple of drinks, some good food, and singing songs as we passed a guitar around the room. It was a welcome diversion after a trip that had been very intense in both the content of meetings and in the number of miles traveled.

Monday found us heading out to the Lake Atitlan area-- a place that JCers have never ventured to. On a gorgeous day the lake was absolutely amazing with aqua water surrounded by huge volcanoes. After taking a boat from the city of Panajachel to the city of Santiago Atitlan, we hooked up with members of dynamic Comite Campesino del Altiplano (CCDA). CCDA is an organization that, like La FEM, has coffee as an important part of its projects, but is a larger political organization. CCDA focuses on land reform, workers rights, and rural development. They currently export coffee to Canada, but not to the US. We hoped to find out more about them to gage whether our orgs might want to work together.

We toured their wet processing facilities at the foot of the Atitlan volcano. There we also saw the skeleton of the new facility that CCDA is building to educate its members on various subjects. After lunch we drove out to the CCDA offices in Quixaya and met Leocadio Juracan-- their president. After a nice presentation Leocadio engaged us in a discussion about "fair trade" and they way that they view coffee in general. Like JC, they see coffee as a vehicle to enter into deeper conversations about trade and social justice. They also see it as a way to build relationships and to look at how all of our lives are connected in a real way. As our talk rose in intensity so did the weather. A heavy thunderstorm rolled in and we were shouting at the top of our lungs to get our words heard by one another. After a very spiritied discussion, amped up by the incredible coffee they served us, we left to return to the city of Toliman with high hopes of connecting with CCDA again.

The next day we returned to Panajachel-- the city affectionately known as "Gringotenango"-- for the only down time of the trip. We wandered around the town for the better part of the day before boarding a shuttle back to Guatemala City and getting on planes early the next morning. 

Now back stateside, we are working on processing all of this information we have gathered during this intense journey through Central America and figuring out our next steps.  One of the biggest issues we saw first hand was climate change.  This was a key term that each group had mentioned and we could see for ourselves the effects the heavy rains are causing for Central American farmers.  This winter has been the worst yet, with more rainfall than ever before and there are still two months left in the season. Rains are causing heavy flooding, landslides, and crop damage.  So far, the coffee plants are looking good, but many are worried that if the rain keeps up, much of the production may be lost once the cherries ripen on the trees (farmers in El Salvador lost 50% of production last year for this reason).  Farmers are also looking into purchasing mechanical dryers rather than patio drying since the rains continue to fall later and later and make it difficult for coffee to dry on its own.  

We'll keep you all updated with how things develop with the various co-ops mentioned here, and of course you can buy La FEM's and Santa Anita's coffee from our online store or in your local food co-op or market.