Nariño is a coffee-growing region on Colombia’s southern border with Ecuador that is renowned for the quality of its coffee but remains the source of relatively few coffees sourced directly by roasters paying premiums for coffees of extraordinary quality. The CRS Borderlands Coffee Project has enlisted the support of an Advisory Board that includes six […]
Focusing on the little things during three days in the field in Nariño. [slidepress gallery=’coffeelands-details’]
CRS works with more than 35,000 smallholder coffee farmers in 12 countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas. The Coffeelands Portrait Project will introduce you to some of them. Today’s post explains the project’s origins and approach; today’s inaugural gallery features 10 gorgeous portraits of farmers participating in our Borderlands Coffee Project in Colombia. [slidepress […]
Yesterday I spent a day in the field here in Colombia as part of the baseline study for our Borderlands Coffee Project. The first farm we visited provided a very pleasant surprise — a rustic sugar cane press. I fondly recall first chewing on sugar cane more than 15 years ago as a volunteer in […]
This week I am in Pasto — a small, vibrant city in the southern Colombian department of Narino, and the base of operations for our Borderlands Coffee Project. There is a lot to like about Pasto: great people, a bustling downtown and a stunning setting — the city is slung against mountains that rise steeply […]
A few weeks ago, I posted a photo essay titled “This is what a baseline looks like” to show a bit of what it means to measure impact at origin. Today, I am back in Ecuador’s northern Amazon with the capable team that will implement the baseline here beginning on Monday. Here are a few […]
Yesterday I participated in an online forum on the future of smallholder Fair Trade hosted by the Fair Trade Resource Nework. My presentation, in synthesis, went something like this: Fair Trade and Fair Trade Certification have catalyzed smallholder farmer organization and empowerment over the past decade through their support for farmer-led cooperatives. But there are […]
The title of this post was not lifted from a greeting card. Rather, it was my travel itinerary on my recent visit to Honduras, which took me from the vibrant coffee town of Gracias (Thank you) through Esperanza (Hope) to Marcala in the department of La Paz (Peace). The visit was designed, as I have […]
The Las Cruces cooperative has been farming 190 acres of shade coffee in El Salvador’s premiere origin for over 30 years, but is only now beginning to make a name for itself in the specialty coffee industry. We are pleased to help the cooperative introduce itself here.
Twelve parting shots from my recent travels in El Salvador.
