COOPERVITAE - Agropecuária Orgânicos Nova Resende e Região

COOPERVITAE was founded by a small group of producers on July 13, 2001. The group became Fair Trade Certified™ in 2006 and has since grown dramatically. Members are enthusiastic about the benefits of Fair Trade and organic agriculture. They are working to become 100 percent organic. There are 370 members in the cooperative. Twelve members, elected from different regions, meet at least once a month to make important decisions. There is also a yearly meeting with all producers. The cooperative produces about 20 containers of coffee per year. Four are organic and represent coffee from roughly twenty-five producers. Many producers are in transition to organic methods. COOPERVITAE is one of fifteen Brazilian Fair Trade Certified producer groups that participated in the 2007-2010 Responsible Sourcing Partnership (RSP) project. The RSP project is a result of a partnership between USAID, Fair Trade USA, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and SEBRAE-MG designed to improve the quality of Brazilian coffee, increase market linkages and raise producer capacity. Through the partnership, COOPERVITAE participated in numerous trainings to improve coffee quality. The events and workshops included cooperative governance, business management, cupping and post-harvest best practices trainings.