COLOMBIA FTO SIERRA NEVADA SOL NACIENTE GRAINPRO is sourced from family-owned farms organized around SOL NACIENTES, a group of 14 producers with farms located near the community of Palmor, in the Santa Marta Sierra Nevada in the department of Magdalena, Colombia. The Sierra Nevada range is a Caribbean coastal range distinct from the Andes range that makes up the majority of Colombia’s coffeelands. For this reason there is a sense of self-reliance in the Sierra Nevada best symbolized by Palmor’s hydropower plant, the only community owned power plant in all of Colombia, which provides clean low-cost energy for the residents of Palmor. Similarly, bananas, corn and avocado trees grown alongside the coffee are used for local consumption evidencing another level of self-reliance for this group of farmers. Sol Nacientes, in collaboration with an exporting company called Inconexus, has recently organized nucleuses of model producers to help neighboring producers improve farm management and processing protocol. Producers also benefit from the close proximity of the Inconexus cupping lab and dry mill located in Santa Marta where coffee is quickly evaluated and parchment is stored in grainpro for protection from the costal humidity.

ETHIOPIA SIDAMO 4 FTO NATURAL OROMIA is sourced from family owned farms organized around the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative (OCFCU), an umbrella organization established 1999 to support a sustainable coffee supply from cooperatives in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. OCFCU supports 274 cooperatives with more than 250,000 farmer-members, accounting for sixty-five percent of Ethiopia’s total coffee production. Premiums from coffee exports are returned directly to farmers, and also fund organic farming programs, mill equipment purchases, and food security programs. OCFCU has established a central cupping lab to support quality control and a members’ bank that provides pre-harvest financing.