One Sunday afternoon in August 2001, twenty-five coffee growers and their families got together around a fresh cup of coffee to discuss the options available to survive the coffee crisis. Barely five years ago they were receiving enough money to make a decent living from the sale of their coffee, but now the coffee crisis was eating into their hard-earned savings and if the situation continued, very soon they would be forced out of business.
On that day, the families, all from the Municipality of Timana, in the south of the Colombian Department of Huila, decided that the only way to survive was by joining forces and improving the quality of their coffee. This would open the doors to new opportunities in the market and to a better future for themselves. On that day, the Asociacion de Productores Agricolas de Timana was born. Currently the cooperative has expanded to eighty-five families and continues to work on the same principles that led to its foundation. Today, we are proud to present to the world the product of the organization of these eighty-five families: Cafe Timana.
As a way of improving the income received by these eighty-five families, Cafe Timana, is sold directly to roasters as a Relationship Coffee. This new approach is a transparent method where all entities involved in the commercialization of the coffee, from growers, to exporter and broker up to the roaster are fully aware of the costs involved in the process. The main benefit of this program is that unlike normal coffee, growers receive the majority of any premium paid by the roaster. This premium is the best incentive for coffee growers to maintain and improve the quality of their coffee,while at the same time providing the families with extra income to improve their quality of life.
The producers also recognize the importance of caring for the environment that surrounds their coffee farms. The co-operatives environmental program is based on two basic principles: protecting the natural habitat for many endemic and migratory birds and other animals, while at the same time prevents soil erosion and improves the water cycle. On the processing side, the co-operatives coffee growers have begun using the coffee pulp as a basis for producing organic compost, thus reducing the need for chemical fertilizers and avoiding water contamination.