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New Projects at CEPICAFE
A lot of things are happening right now with our producer partner CEPICAFE. The Peruvian non-profit organization is working really hard to diversify its production in order to maximize the communities’ incomes and develop their economy. Apart from their traditional production of coffee and cacao, CEPICAFE has been working on new projects of exportation of cane sugar, jams and candied fruits. They also have an eco-tourism project going on.
Before the panela (cane sugar) project, the sugar cane around CEPICAFE’s region was seen as useless and worthless crop by the community. They have worked a lot on the quality to make it an exportable product. They have gotten the strong support of a company in France, Ethiquable, that have provided them with a lot of financing to invest the funds to get the equipment necessary, and to work with them on quality. This company in France is now selling their panela in many grocery stores and recently there have been discussions on the possibility to export in Canada, through Cooperative Coffees’ member Café Rico in Montreal.
The project of production and exportation of jam was initiated in March 2006 by small producers in the 
region of la Sierra de Piura. The purpose of this project was to give additional incomes for producer members of CEPICAFE with raw material already growing in their fields. They now use the fruits of their lands to make jams of comparable quality from the other ones on the market. The jams are made with 40% of sugar and 60% of fruits, entirely with natural conservatives and without chemical additives. They are sold in many supermarkets in France, through Ethiquable. Producers then had the original idea of making candied fruits with the peel left from the production of orange and lime jam.
Even though Northern Peru has not traditionally been an attractive region for tourists, CEPICAFE has set up a hostel and created an eco-tourism project. Guests can tour the coffee farms and participate in the harvesting of coffee cherries. Also, they have created alliances with producer groups close to the coast, where they grow mangoes and other fruits, where tourists can also go visit.
CEPICAFE is a great example of creativity and its producers continue to find new ways of maximising their production and incomes using the resources available. Cooperative Coffees is proud to maintain good partnership relation with this producer organization and wishes that their exportation projects will continue growing.
