Day 2: Chaguarpamba – Bees and Coffee
The next day we met Gustavo Mora on his 1 hectare farm in Chaguarpamba, about 110 Km west of Loja. Gustavo is one of a few farmers in the region who have really embraced the Fairtrade system and the help it can provide.
As we arrived, 6 farmers from the area had gathered to learn how to process honey from wild bees. A bee keeper showed all of us how to encourage bees to live in manmade hives and to maximise their yield – this was a real privilege and shows what can be achieved when surpluses from a cooperative are reinvested in their members.
The farm was well laid out, clean and organised. Coffee was drying on raised beds and protected from rain by a polytunnel – again this is an innovation in this part of Ecuador. This is a Fairtrade and Organic farm and coffee was growing alongside oranges, papaya and bananas. These crops are both for sale, to supplement Gustavos income, and for family consumption.
Gustavo was rightly proud of his farm and had taken a lead in encouraging his neighbours to improve their own farms, it was a great insight into the workings of the Fairtrade Cooperative system.
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