PRODECOOP, Central de Cooperativas de Servicios Múltiples, PRODECOOP R.L.

Support for Fair Trade coffee cooperatives

Nicaragua

Fair trade

Trade in products that have been certified and carry a fair trade label. An example of this is a farmer’s cooperative that collectively sells its cocoa to a fair trade organization.

Green

Promotes and/or supports the protection of the environment. An example of this is an organic farming cooperative.

PRODECOOP, Promotora de Desarrollo Cooperativo de las Segovias SA, was founded in 1993 and represents 39 cooperatives of 2,300 small coffee farmers in the Segovias region in northern Nicaragua. PRODECOOP processes the organic and conventional coffee beans produced by its members and sells the coffee on the international Fair Trade coffee market. In addition to this service, it also offers financing, technical assistance and training, and social development programmes.

The cooperative was created in response to the end of the civil war in the early 1990s which saw the Segovias as the main battleground. Hence, huge rebuilding efforts were required to restore the region in economic and social terms. The rural areas of the Segovias region have very high unemployment levels and extreme poverty.

PRODECOOP has its own dry processing plant, and employs 20 permanent staff and hundreds of workers during the harvest season.

PRODECOOP has been an Oikocredit partner since 1994.