Fairtrade - Mexico
Mexico’s Union of Indigenous Communities of the Isthmus Region (UCIRI) cooperative is located in the south of Oaxaca State in the Tehuantepec Isthmus. It is comprised of 54 communities and three ethnic groups: the Zapotec, Mixes and Chontales. The cooperative was founded in 1982 under the leadership of Father Francisco Van Der Hoff, founder of the modern Fair Trade movement, who still lives here among the coffee growers.
The producers are fully aware that to sell coffee at above market price and to win customer loyalty they must offer a coffee of an impeccable quality. To assure this, members of UCIRI attach special significance to their harvest: they pick by hand, gathering only ripe cherries. The wet processing, (pulping and fermentation), is carried out on the farm, in containers of plastic, wood or cement. The coffee is then dried gently in the sun, on trays or protected areas before being sent to the central cooperative for final processing prior to export.
UCIRI coffee is a coffee of the local ‘terroir’. Its character is due not only to environmental factors (old varieties grown in dense shade between 800 and 1500m above sea level), but also to the specific knowledge of the farmers who for generations have transformed the cherries into exportable green coffee. UCIRI coffee is a full flavoured coffee, round, slightly acidic and with a very fragrant nose.
In Brief:
- Number of growers: 2,300
- Founded in 1982
- Max Havelaar Fair Trade label founded in 1988
- Total volume of production in 2007: 750 tonnes
- Average number of hectares cultivated per producer: 2.5 hectares
- Total development premium paid in 2007: $167,000
- Harvest period: December to March
