About the producer

Guaya'b Civil Association is an 617-member cooperative of smallholder farmers in the municipality of Jacaltenango, department of Huehuetenango, Guatemala. The Association was established in 1999 thanks to the financial support of HIVOS, a non-governmental organization from the Netherlands. The population of the group is predominantly indigenous, speaking both Spanish and Maya-Popti, the language of the local ethnic group. 

Guaya’b is a word from the indigenous Maya-Popti language that means “mutual support.” The organization adds its members through referrals and works with different cells of members, each with their own board and their own management of coffee and loans.

Guaya'b farms are located in the foothills of the Cordillera de los Cuchumatan. The average annual temperature ranges between 18-25 degrees Celsius and the annual rainfall ranges from 1500-2000 mm. The altitude ranges from 800 to 1700 meters above sea level. The community is focused in promoting the cultivation of coffee, honey, peanuts, hibiscus and to a smaller scale anise, sugar cane, banana, avocado, citrus, vegetables, corn, beans. Coffee production takes place under a canopy of trees of mainly local species.

Guaya’b has its own wet mill, making it easier for the cooperative to control the quality of its coffee from harvest until export.