The beginning of Coopervitae...
The beginning of Coopervitae has to do with the work of the local Catholic church. They helped to improve agricultural practice and medical alternatives. This work
was initiated by nuns around 30 to 40 years ago. In that time people started to question agro-chemicals. Groups were formed in order to improve agriculture and to work closer together in order to achieve more goals and to be stronger in the
market.
During 1995 to 1998, programs were executed in Minas Gerais, partly organized by the
government in order to strengthen cooperation of small producers and cooperatives.
Organic production was starting to become an issue but at that time production was still very limited. Only after a few years the different groups
were willing to undertake a big effort and produce organic coffees,
and finally got their coffee certified. First inspection was in 2001. It was also in 2001 that
COOPERVITAE was founded. Today Coopervitae counts with 42 producers, 25 of these are already certified and the others are in process
of organic certification. Coopervitae's farmers are small producers and
posess between 0.5 and 6 ha each. Through FLO's guaranteed minimum prices, these farmers have been able to survive and
have a better life.
Today, Coopervitae is BCS ÖKO-GARANTIE certified and they can export to Europe, EU and Japan.
