Guatemala

One of the newest organic coffee offerings out of Guatemala is from a rising star coffee cooperative in Rio Azul, Guatemala in the Huehuetenango region. This coffee is purchased by Dillanos Coffee Roasters of Sumner, WA, and recently was covered in the Seattle press: In exchange for coffee beans, Dillanos will pay the cooperative’s 150 members and will spend $10,000 to cover their families’ medical care. "We’re looking for ways to create a supply chain that benefits all involved," Sumner native Phil Beattie, Dillanos’ roast master, said this week. Fair-trade certified for nearly 15 years, Rio Azul’s coffee cooperative faced bankruptcy in 2005, thanks to poor financial management, but managed to remain in operation. Earlier this year, the cooperative’s new manager, Ramon Gonzalez, approached Beattie in Antigua, Guatemala, at Sustainable Harvest Coffee’s "Let’s Talk Coffee 2007," an annual networking event. Beattie was touched by Rio Azul’s story and struggle. If the cooperative’s coffee tasted great, Beattie told Gonzalez, he’d get Dillanos involved. It tasted better than great – boasting "a cinnamon and floral aroma, a refined sweet acidity and a wonderful complex flavor with hints of mango," said Beattie. Sustainable Harvest Coffee Importers brings growers and roasters together. Since 1989, the Portland-based company has brokered equitable business arrangements and promoted transparency. "Our model is additive to existing organic and fair trade certifications," said David Griswold, Sustainable Harvest president and founder. "We want growers and roasters to see each other as partners.“Dillanos is a perfect example of a roaster embracing this." Dillanos bought 320 bags of Rio Azul coffee beans and, last month, Beattie visited the cooperative. He saw the village’s poverty, was excited about its coffee, and was eager to secure a supply for Dillanos. Consumer demand for gourmet beans is growing, but the land where coffee trees thrive is finite. The deal nets Dillanos high-quality beans and gives Rio Azul’s cooperative financial security.

"We asked the co-op members ‘What are your needs?" Beattie said. "Unanimously, they struggle to pay for medical care." According to Beattie, most Guatemalan coffee farmers produce 15 150-pound bags of beans a year, earning enough to keep their families fed but little more."When major medical problems come up, they’re in trouble," Beattie said.

A checkup costs $7 in Rio Azul, where three doctors serve more than 44,000 people. The cooperative’s members hadn’t met a coffee buyer in decades.

"It was a situation where these people were about to lose everything," Beattie said. "For us, this has been extremely rewarding. We’re changing the way coffee is traded on a global scale."