Cooperativa Agraria Frontera San Ignacio

There are sixteen committees that form the cooperative Agraria Frontera San Ignacio, or COOPAFSI. They are small coffee producers and the organization provides coffee collection and marketing services; it also provides social and micro-finance services to its partners. Often farmers can grow great coffee, but getting the word out to importers and roasters is not an easy skill, and a cooperative with an ability to do that proves it’s worth very quickly. Originally forming in 1968 the cooperative has a presence within the districts of La Coipa, Huarango, and Tabaconas as well as San Ignacio and have an aim to “develop a competitive sustainable agriculture with a sense of belonging and entrepreneurial capacity of its managers and workers, with national and international recognition for its trajectory and sustainable quality.”

The cooperative has a number of funds available to members, that cover a large number of needs that arise from technical agricultural training to community development, health funds and a micro credit facility.

Located in the buffer zones of a protected natural area means working with an organic methodology and certification is a strategic point because through these standards, a culture of protection of wildlife and species in danger of extension is encouraged and created. We have been working with them for a few years, and have been developing microlots with them after noticing the high quality of some of their offerings, over and above the certified coffee we do with them. These projects are quality driven and a great incentive to the farmers to live the value of increasing quality. From an initial lot separation they have progressed to experimenting through honey processing right up to anaerobic fermentation naturals.

Coffee is processed at the local farm level, delivered to a cooperative warehouse in San Ignacio town as parchment and finally transported to the dry mill facilities in Chiclayo city. The dry-processing facility is where they process not only their own coffee but also coffee from several other organizations of small-scale growers (approx. 27 co-ops). The export department is based here as well as another quality control laboratory with well-trained staff, and is certified too.