In the Field
In more than 90 countries, CRS is called to save lives, address the root causes and effects of poverty, and help build more just societies. In our agriculture work, we provide technical and financial assistance to agricultural producers to improve farming, harvesting, and processing techniques so they can meet the demands of the market. We also support them by promoting fair trade here in the U.S. through more than a dozen coffee companies. When you buy fair trade products, you are supporting mission-based businesses and helping farmers put food on the table and send their kids to school.
Among many other projects, CRS currently sponsors the Mountains to Markets coffee and livelihoods project in Haiti, and the Borderlands Coffee Project in Colombia and Ecuador.
From Haiti’s Mountains to Markets
Thoughts of Haiti often turn to memories of the devastating earthquake in Port-au-Prince that occurred in 2010. As a complement to our emergency response, CRS developed the Mountains to Markets (M2M) Project to help over 2,000 Haitian coffee and mango farmers and producers to improved their products, organizations, and access to markets.
The Association des Producteurs et Vendeurs de Fruits du Sud (ASPVEFS) specializes in the mango value chain, while Développement Chrétien Haiti (DCCH) supports the development of microenterprises. CRS has also developed relationships with a range of public and private alliances, including with the Ministry of Agriculture, Root Capital and Singing Rooster.
Read an interview with Ogisna Journal to understand how CRS’s work is changing lives in Haiti and how you can purchase coffee from Singing Rooster. To learn more about the historic work of CRS in coffee, check out the CRS Coffeelands Blog Archive.
The Borderlands of Conflict and Coffee
Since September 2011, the Borderlands Coffee Project has been helping 3,200 smallholder coffee farmers in conflict-affected communities along the Colombia-Ecuador border to expand market opportunities and reduce their vulnerability to hunger and environmental degradation.
Marcial Agustín Villota Arteaga, Nariño, Colombia. “I am 94 years old. I have spent 75 years growing coffee and teaching my children the same tradition.”
On the Colombian side, the project is working in the Department of Nariño, an area characterized by drug production and trafficking, active conflict between the government, guerrilla movements and illegal armed actors, and concentrations of internally displaced people in high-risk areas. On the Ecuadoran side of the border, the project focuses on the provinces of Orellana and Sucumbíos, areas populated by resettled Colombian refugees and Kichwa-speaking indigenous people living under conditions of extreme poverty.
Borderlands aims at maintaining sustainable, eco-friendly and bio-diverse coffee production to serve not only the farmers and their families, but their communities as well. To ensure this society-wide outreach, CRS partners with the local Church partners in both Colombia and Ecuador, as well as with other stake holders like research institutes, coffee importers and coffee roasters.
