Higher Grounds Trading Company
Roasting 100% Fair Trade and Organic Handcrafted Coffees
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Meet the Farmers: Nicaragua
Seventy-nine percent of Nicaraguans earn less than $2 per day. This is a country who's coffee history has been marred with oppression and poverty, but the future is brightening: here, small-scale growers have come together in search of an alternative solution to improving coffee quality and sustainable development. Made up of nearly 2,000 small-scale coffee farmers from nine cooperatives, La Central de Cooperativas Cafetaleras del Norte (CECOCAFEN) produces high-quality coffee while raising its members' quality of life. Since its establishment in 1997, CECOCAFEN has taken great strides toward fulfilling its goals through a variety of social, environmental and production programs.
So far, revenue from fair trade premiums has helpefd CECOCAFEN finance a solar processing plant, and quality control laboratory. Trainings in sustainable agriculture include organic and shade cultivation, terracing, soil conservation, and crop diversification. More than 225 women participate in a savings and loan program for investment in activities that provide income diversification and food security. CECOCAFEN has funded more than 200 secondar- school and university-level scholarships for cooperative members and their children.
In Perspective
Soon after being introduced to Nicaragua by Catholic Missionaries in the 1790's, coffee became forever intertwined in the history of the country. The first 8,000 pounds of beans were exported by boat in 1850, ushering in an age of prosperity for the mostly foreign coffee barons as they oppressed the country's indigenous population. Coffee production quickly became an integral part to the economic growth of Nicaragua as growers lived a life of extreme poverty and oppression.
The new millennia ushered in a coffee crisis that saw nearly unparalleled devastation. Until coffee prices began to fall in the late 1990's, coffee cultivation represented nearly a third of the agricultural sector's GDP and a quarter of the country's total exports. When coffee prices plummeted, coffee growers by the thousands left their coffee fields and migrated to Matagalpa and Managua in hopes of finding emergency food.
Today, thanks to support from international aid and dedicated growers banning together to form fair trade coffee cooperatives, Nicaraguan farmers are finally getting a chance to share their specialty coffees direct to the world at a fair price.
A Quality Cup
Nicaraguan specialty coffee comes from the Maragogype, Bourbon, and Caturra tree varieties grown in rich volcanic soil. Quality improvement programs such as the construction of community-owned dry beneficios (where green coffee is washed and dried) along with cupping laboratories in the countryside have distinguished Nicaraguan coffee as some of the most sought-after beans in the world. The typical specialty grade Nicaraguan bean will have a full body, and rich sweet flavor profile finished with a slight nutty finish.
