Beltran Apaza
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Quality Control Officer CECOVASA
"Cafédirect opened the door for us. With Cafédirect's encouragement we have strengthened our cooperative. More growers have become members of the co-op. Their sons and daughters have begun working in the cooperative. This encouragement and better prices have enabled the growers to start investing in their farms. That's how quality started improving. We produce coffee and want to sell it.
Cafédirect buy our product and support us as producers through always thinking about a fair price and the quality of coffee. This contributes to helping us improve our quality of life and also improve the quality of the product."
Beltran visited Cafédirect in 2006 to gain an understanding of the market here and during his visit was guest speaker at an event held in Kew Gardens. Supermarket buyers and trade press were invited to a session on coffee growing and tasting, highlighting the importance of the growers' knowledge and skills to deliver high quality products.
CECOVASA
and
Cafédirect
The CECOVASA co-operatives are based in the valleys of Inambari and Tambopata, on the Eastern side of the Andes in Southern Peru. The two valleys are made up of two indigenous tribes; the Quechua and the Aymara.
Coffee is an important source of income for these communities and CECOVASA was founded to tackle the high dependence of coffee farmers on intermediaries and to give them a more direct route to export their coffee. In doing so, it provided them with a better price for their coffee.
The mission of CECOVASA is to promote the long term sustainability of its smallholder coffee growers while managing natural resources in a sustainable manner.
The growers are working towards this, and with the assistance of Cafédirect, have invested significantly in developing the quality of their coffee.