History of our Associates
In its beginnings, most of the small farmers were salaried workers, who recieved unfair treatment (low salaries, excessive hours of work, bad treatment). Then came a change of policies from the state where a process was carried out called Agrarian reform CORA, which established rules on land use and carried out a land ownership transfer process, initially through the model of peasant settlements or peasant cooperatives.
In the Choapa Province, the majority of the land is still owned by small farmers with the support of the state. In the last 20 years, the state has made investments in irrigation and fruit plantations for the export market. The farmers have improved the fields management and with the support of technical advisory, were able to produce quality products. But the commercialization was left to intermediaries, from whom they got very low prices for their products.
Our beginnings were very difficult, without capital to work with, without tools and without the appropriate knowledge. We worked together with the family and were able to work the land and preserve it until today for the well being of our families and as a historical legacy for our children.
Understanding that working in a united manner is the only way to improve marketing, in 2007, 47 small farmers decided to form a cooperative, whose main objective was to improve the conditions of their products’ marketing and, thereby, to improve the quality of life of their Families. The cooperative was officially founded on September 26, 2007.
