Araku Valley, India: SAMTFMACS, Cooperative of Adivasi Women Farmers
The search for the best green coffee in the world led us to eastern India, to the hills of the Eastern Ghats, to Araku. Under British colonial rule, Adivasi women farmers had to pay a handful of rupees to bring their own processed coffee to government collection stations, where the poorest quality raw product found its way onto the world market. The stations disappeared and with them the few rupees.
The Adivasi villages are united in a cooperative. In 2007, this registered cooperative was founded and since then has represented the interests of the small coffee farmers spread throughout the area. Its focus is clearly on sustainable coffee cultivation and on a fair, regulated income for its membersCoffee from strictly biodynamic cultivation.
This coffee is fairly traded and we import it directly with Kuehne und Nagel from Araku.
In addition, CHF 1 per imported KG goes to the Nanhi Kali project, the Naandi Foundation, to give underprivileged Adivasi girls the opportunity to complete a ten-year school education, which is rather unusual in rural areas.