Cafe Justicia

About Cafe Justicia :

« Since Guatemala’s armed conflict ended in December 1996, the CCDA (Campesino Committee of the Highlands) has combined land fund credits included in the peace accords with profits from coffee sales and support from solidarity groups to obtain land for its members. Wherever possible, the CCDA assists members to organize cooperatives on their new land.

The CCDA’s Café Justicia is produced on these cooperatives, and on small plots farmed by individual CCDA members. The first to produce Café Justicia was the El Paraíso Cooperative in the municipality of San Antonio Polapó, Sololá province (about 15 kilometres east of Lake Atitlán).

The Cooperative was started in 1998 by approximately 100 families from five neighbouring Cakchiquel Maya communities. The cooperative’s land comprises 300 hectares that stretch from the Madre Vieja river valley at 1600 metres to a mountain plateau at just over 2000 metres.

Vegetables for market and domestic consumption are grown in the river valley, where irrigation is easily accessible, while the slopes are planted with coffee grown under a canopy of bananas, avocados and larger shade trees. Access to the cooperative is via a precarious mountain trail 1 hour’s hike from the village of Chitilul – itself an hour’s hike from the nearest road. »