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Peru's Congress of the Republic Invites Three Co-ops to a Working Meeting with Sierra Exportadora |
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Posted: February 8, 2007
"Ms Marisol Espinoza – congresswoman -, I am so grateful for having had this opportunity to get to know the experiences and achievements of Cepicafé, Cecovasa and Cacvra; Cepicafé has shown an amazing capacity for product diversification and enormous development potential. Cecovasa is an example or an organization which has succeeded in market segmentation and an extremely high quality of work; Cacvra has the additional merit of achieving results in a local context of illegal coca plantations and political violence." This was the opinion of Dr. Gastón Benza Pflücker, Executive President of Sierra Exportadora Program, at the end of the session organized by the Foreign Trade Working Team, chaired by the Congresswoman from Piura. In this important event, held in María Elena Moyano meeting room at the Congress of the Republic on January 16th, there was also participation from Congressman Isaac Mekler.
Sergio Neira recapitulated Cepicafé's work: it was founded in 1995 in Piura, and today the organization develops activities in Cajamarca and Amazonas. Cepicafé has 6,363 member families. "We started exporting in 1997; that year we exported 187 quintals, in 2006 we exported 41,918 out of them 27,355 at Fair Trade conditions (18,018 organic and 9,337 conventional). With coffee as our pillar, we have diversified into brown sugar from sugar cane; we exported 552 tons to France and Italy in 2006. Then, we started with jams to the European market: In 2007 we are going to ship 6 containers with a FOB value of US$ 300,000; we have also sold passion fruit and cacao, we are working now in new products and new projects."
On behalf of Cecovasa, Miguel Paz explained the development of this organization - from Puno - in the market of high quality coffees: "Our sales in the 2006-2007 campaign exceed US$ 12 million. We place 65% of our coffee into the specialty market - the ones that have been segmented by altitude, production zone, producers' ethnic composition, and have offered these coffees to the market with distinctive brands".
Mr. Pedro Pineda from Cacvra shared the experience of the Valle del Río Apurímac Cooperative in Ayacucho, "Cacvra was founded in 1969. During those years we have had a very serious crisis, mainly due to terrorism and drug dealers, even though we are succeeding with coffee and cacao. In 2006, we exported 800 tons of cacao to Switzerland, out of them 500 are organic. Our situation has improved and we have received support from the European Union, loans for working capital with interest from 8 to 9% per year, marketing research, participation in fairs and business trips, product development; technical support and equipment to improve quality, organizational strengthening, and leadership development training."
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