Anserma, is located in Colombia’s famous “Eje Cafetero”. An area that includes renowned coffee growing departments such as Caldas, Quindio, Risaralda and Tolima. The region is famous for producing the majority of Colombia coffee. Coffee from Colombia is considered by many to be amongst the best coffee in the world.
Anserma was founded in 1967 in the department of Caldas. And we have worked with them since 2019. Today, they have over 2000 members, all smallholder farmers. The coffee, is grown at altitudes of 1400 ma.s.l., under a canopy of shade. Farmers process and dry the coffee at their farms. The dried coffee bean, called parchment is then delivered to the cooperative where it undergoes a strict quality control including a physical appearance check, as well as cuppng. The quality of that coffee determines the price the farmer receives. The higher the quality, the higher the price. But, just as important is the feedback on quality the cooperative gives the farmers. With this feedback farmers are able to improve their processing or drying techniques, improving quality year on year.
The cooperative promotes quality improvements but also uses coffee, as a means to improve social and economic standards. All the profits received are re-invested into social programs that impact the wider community, such as gender equality and education programs. They also provide a wide range of financing for their producer members and families.
The cooperative works closely with the local community to provide them with clean drinking water. Their project “Mujeres Cafeteras” (Women in Coffee) has reforested more than 30 000 trees, planted near waterbeds to help protect them.
Colombia is unique as there are two harvest periods, due to year round rainfall. One from September to December and one in April- May. This means there is a fresh harvest available nearly year round.
The cooperative's mission is to:
“Commercialize efficiently the coffee, and other agricultural products, by means of the democratic and participative integration of the coffee growers of the radius of action and zone of influence of the Cooperative, from the achievement of potential markets that allow to establish competitive price based on the human talent, that generates better services for the coffee grower, his family and the community.”
