This entry is a blog post written by Natalie Sober (Fair Trade Towns Boulder). It details a visit to the headquarters of a Mexican coffee cooperative during the 2013 Trip to Origin.
Listening to our taxi driver
Guillermo melodically translate bits of Spanish into his native language of Tzotzil,
we did not know the intensity of the conversation we were about to enter.
Houses gave way to densely forested hills as we approached the headquarters of
Majomut, Union of Organic Coffee Producers, on the edge of San Cristobal de las
Casas in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico.
In Tzotzil, “Majomut” means the
meeting place of the birds. Of the 969 cooperative members representing 35
distinct communities, 100% are of Tzotzil or Tzeltal descent. The entire
cooperative is comprised of indigenous peoples. Founded in 1983, Majomut has
been proudly organic since 1992. Fernando Rodríguez, the Head of Operations,
was our guide for the evening as he talked us through the main logistical and
philosophical points of the cooperative.
Left: Fernando
Rodríguez (left) and another member of the administrative team
Right: The entrance to Unión Majomut
“No hay gerente” – there is no one director. Fernando was insistent on the collective nature of Majomut from the beginning.
Majomut formed out of a desire to
foster a more direct relationship with the cafetaleros, those growing the coffee.
In the past, coyotes (rugged middlemen roaming the Chiapan hills) took
advantage of the farmers’ poor access to markets. They refused to pay prices
that reflected what the farmers knew their coffee was worth. Under this system,
it was impossible for the farmers to improve their quality of life. Majomut
aimed to change this via collective effort.
As a cooperative, these indigenous
cafetaleros have organized social support to help them craft a quality product
while taking care of the environment. Part of their social premium is invested
in organic trainings for the cafetaleros, while another part supports organic
gardening projects run by women. These
trainings are not contracted out; leaders come from within the communities.
This level of internal responsibility is also evident in el Microbanco
Campesino (the workers’ bank), which was established to promote a culture of
savings and provide access to pre-harvest financing. Majomut chooses to empower
itself rather than seek external aid.
A photograph of some of the cooperative's cafetaleros
At this point, our conversation
took a twist from the specifics of the co-op to Fair Trade as a philosophy.
“El comercio justo no debe ser una moda, debe
ser un modelo” (Fair Trade should not be a fad, it should be a model). Majomut
already pays for multiple certifications to assure consumers of the quality of
their product. One concern Fernando
expressed was that Fair Trade USA would decide to no longer accept FLO-CERT and
that they would have to go through yet another certification channel (Billy,
the national Fair Trade Campaigns Organizer, assured him otherwise). Fernando
voiced another concern regarding the fate of true “small producers” as plantation
pilot programs emerge on the Fair Trade scene. He worries that small producers,
the traditional heart of Fair Trade, will be pushed out of the market as
larger-scale operations gain momentum.
Fernando’s message to the U.S.
consumer was simple: learn to differentiate between products crafted by small
producers and those that come from plantations because “hay una gran
diferencia” (there is a huge difference). Small producers “need a way to meet
their basic needs,” and they “take care of the environment” in ways plantations
do not.
The emergence of the Small Producer
Symbol (el símbolo de pequeños productores), seen above, is a Latin American
initiative aimed at helping distinguish products such as those coming from
Majomut. It is one of the labels that Majomut is proud to carry. When asked
what hired workers on plantations should do to receive fair compensation,
Fernando’s answer was straightforward: organize. With twenty members, you can
form a cooperative. Had there been more time, I am certain this discussion
would have continued.
Majomut
defines itself as “un camino en construcción” (a path under construction).
Certainly this is true, as it is for all human endeavors, but it seems that
they are already well on their way.
