The Union of Small-Scale Producers
Unión de Pequeños Caficultores (UPC)
Located in the Huehuetenango Coffee Growing Region
The Union of Small-Scale Producers (UPC) is made up of a group of producers spanning a vast, mountainous area that surrounds the town of La Democracia in the highlands of the department Huehuetenango. The region provides ideal conditions for coffee production, even if many plants are situated at incredibly steep inclines. Coffee is the main, and in many cases, the only crop and income source. Due to low land prices in this part of the country, some producers own plots of land as large as 100 cuerdas (a traditional unit of land area equivalent to 4,700 square yards).
The Union was formed in 1998 and currently has over 160 members, almost half of whom are women, which is an impressive figure considering Guatemala's male-dominated coffee sector. This situation is a result of large-scale migration, mainly by men, to the U.S., as jobs are hard to find in Huehuetenango. As a result, many families are run by female heads of household.
The cooperative is very structured with a well-developed business model, several full-time paid positions, and various international export contracts. Their sales are in the hundreds of thousands of pounds per year with part of the crop being organic certified (10% in 2021). Their mission is to promote and foster the social development of small-scale agricultural workers, through projects launched for education, training, production, processing, and marketing of coffee. In living out their mission, the co-op offers funding facilities for the production of coffee and a microfinance program for its members, as well as provides advisory services and technical assistance trainings on coffee cultivation and processing.
Many farmers own their own depulpers and have patios in their gardens – some of which are quite sophisticated with water fed fermentation tanks and washing canals. Each farmer wet mills their own coffee and then sells it to the cooperative which dry-mills, stores, and sells the product. Farmers are paid upon turning in their coffee to the cooperative and the remaining profits of collectively selling the coffee are used to cover salaried employees and pay for various small-scale community development projects.
A distinct element at The Union is a very active women’s group, whose coffee is sold separately, which we also market in our online shop. The women’s cooperative was founded in 2000 and currently consists of 62 members who carry out all steps including picking, processing, roasting, packing, and exportation. This group is intentional about incorporating trainings and workshops that tackle topics beyond coffee such as gender-equality, self-esteem, and connecting women with access to social and legal services.
