Projects at their origin

Blaser Trading, our sister company from which we purchase our green coffee, often falls into the category of small customers for producers and suppliers in the countries of origin. In addition, we have no branch outside Switzerland and no coffee plantations of our own. Despite our relatively small size and therefore limited scope for influence, we take our responsibility seriously.

It is absolutely crucial for us to make a strategically careful selection of effective measures in order to minimize the most significant risks. As part of these measures, we also support social projects, which we carefully examine in advance - often with the help of long-standing partners in the countries of origin. We present some of them to you here.

 

 

Project DOÑA LUCERO from CSC – Maya female-power coffee

The Italian non-profit organization amka and the label Caffè Speciali Certificati - CSC, are working together to promote the social project Doña Lucero, which supports 80 female coffee producers in Guatemala. The project Doña Lucero was launched in 2020 in the Petatán province in the Huehuetenango region of northwestern Guatemala, where coffee cultivation extends for miles thanks to fertile soils and favorable climatic conditions.

As part of the project, the women were able to further develop their production and trading capacities. Targeted training courses ranged from coffee production issues to promoting the role of women, from the distribution of agricultural materials and products to technical support in improving cultivation techniques and the coffee harvest. Doña Lucero's project participants received a substantial bonus, which corresponded to an increase in income of almost 50%.

We support this project through our membership of the CSC and by purchasing some of the green coffee from this project. Blasercafé has developed and launched the coffee "Maya" from this project. Here you find more information about the project.

Reconstruction of a health center in Guatemala

Thanks to the long-standing and friendly relationship between Blaser Trading and the Guatemala-based supplier Fedecocagua, we became aware of a very special project that we supported together with the Lindenhofgruppe.

The project was supervised and supported locally by the Ulrich Gurtner Kappeler UGK Foundation, which was set up by Fedecocagua many years ago. We were in direct contact with the local project managers throughout the entire reconstruction process.

In 2020, a small health center in Guatemala was completely destroyed by tropical storms. The residents immediately endeavored to build a new one. The commission for village development bought a piece of land and contacted all the organizations and institutions that could contribute to the new building.

The new clinic was inaugurated in March 2022. The "Puesto de Salud" has become a place where employees and patients feel safe and comfortable and where the care of the sick and injured is guaranteed at a good level. The constant power supply, which is guaranteed by a new solar system, is also particularly appreciated.

 
 

Terroir Indonesia Sumatra Orang Utan

By purchasing green coffee from the Umang Isaq and Wih Bersih smallholder group, we support the conservation of the orangutan habitat in Sumatra.

Smallholders cultivate coffee gardens in the Gayo highlands of Aceh in the north of Sumatra according to the Orang Utan Standard. Care is taken to ensure that the coffee is grown organically without the use of agrochemicals. This protects the rainforest with its animals and plants. The coffee farmers receive a premium per kilo of green coffee sold. Another premium supports the Sumatran Orang Utan Conservation Program, which works with the Indonesian government to protect the Sumatran orangutans and the rainforest. In 2023, we were able to sell 462 kilos of this coffee.

Here you find more information about the project