UCA SOPPEXCCA has made it its task to create a branch of organization and management in favour of all the members. Within the frame of the cooperative there appeared many possibilities of improving organization, commerce, and production:
a) direct commercialization of high-quality coffee has a positive effect on all the participants as the following table makes clear:
year | number of participating men and women | local market price ( in dollars ) | price paid by UCA SOPPEXCCA ( in dollars ) | price difference between the local market / the members of UCA SOPPEXCCA |
1999-2000 | 68 | 75,00 | 93,00 | +18 |
2000-2001 | 150 | 45,00 | 62,00 | +17 |
2001-2002 | 250 | 45,00 | 60,00 | +15 |
2002-2003 | 350 | 46,00 | 62,00 | +16 |
2003-2004 | 450 | 67,00 | 85,00 | +18 |
2004-2005 | 650 | 92.00 | 109.00 | +17 |
2005-2006 | 700 | 94.00 | 108.00 | + 14 |
b) diversification of the product range by promoting the cultivation of biological cacao, yucca, and fruit trees in suitable areas, by cattle and sheep breeding and vegetable gardens.
The first aim of diversification is the autarkical self-support of the small planters and women farmers with food. By cultivating by themselves they can stabilize their supplies and improve them in the long term.
UCA SOPPEXCCA lends credits, which are to serve to renew the coffee plantations and to begin the cultivation of cacao. This enables the families to take out loans on affordable conditions.
At the moment a credit system is being developed to buy land for young, landless men and women in order to give them the possibility of being integrated into the economic process of production and organization.
To help the planters with certificating their biological coffee they get extended vocational training, financial resources and consultation for the process of certification/registration.
A planning instrument for the companies of small farmers was developed which is to enable the farmers and their families to plan their own production themselves. Moreover, there is a register which is to help the men and women producers submit every cycle of production to an economical evaluation. After UCA SOPPEXCCA had introduced this system other cooperatives which belong to the organizational sphere of Cafenica also showed their interest in applying this system. The Spanish development aid organization and the Ministry of Agriculture having examined and adapted the system six organizations in Nicaragua are working with this method by now. An estimated number of 5 000 small farmers will profit by this method of control and planning.
The concept for the production of high-quality coffee is an integral part of the work of UCA SOPPEXCCA and aims at sales increase. In the frame of the work to improve quality a laboratory for testing the coffee grew up, in which the children of the farmers are schooled. It is the only laboratory of its kind in the region. Next to this laboratory a café was established, which is to promote the consumption of high-quality coffee in this region, and where young people of UCA SOPPEXCCA are engaged as well.