CNS STORY: US priest buys high, sells low to help Guatemalan coffee growers

GUATEMALA-COFFEE Sep-9-2009 (850 words) xxxi

US priest buys high, sells low to help Guatemalan coffee growers

By Ezra Fieser
Catholic News Service

SAN LUCAS TOLIMAN, Guatemala (CNS) -- In the 17 years since he started buying coffee from the hundreds of families who farm the hills overlooking Lake Atitlan, Msgr. Gregory Schaffer has seen the coffee industry's highs and lows.

The market peaked in the late 1990s and crashed in the early 2000s, causing thousands of farmers to abandon their lands and migrate in search of work.

None of that affected the farmers selling to Msgr. Schaffer, a priest of the Diocese of New Ulm, Minn., who has worked in the San Lucas Mission for nearly 47 years.

While small coffee farmers throughout Latin America have struggled to make ends meet growing the world's second-most-traded commodity -- behind petroleum -- the indigenous coffee growers of San Lucas Toliman have received superior prices from Msgr. Schaffer.

The $2.10 per pound they are paid is double what they might receive selling to middlemen and about 35 percent more than they would receive by selling both fair-trade and certified-organic beans.

"We started this not by looking at the market. We started by asking the farmers what they thought their coffee was worth," said Msgr. Schaffer, 74. "We asked, 'How much do you need to have a decent life?' That's how we set our price."

Despite producing some of the world's best coffees, small growers in Guatemala and throughout Central America largely live in impoverished conditions, mainly due to the low prices they receive for coffee.

"These are some of the poorest people in the social scheme," said Costa Rican coffee economist Rafael Diaz. "These communities suffer from chronic migration, poor health care and a low standard of living. Because of the low price of coffee, they can't pull themselves out of poverty."

San Lucas Toliman is a microscopic slice amid the multimillion-dollar coffee market, but Msgr. Schaffer says his approach is one of few that rewards the farmer and the consumer.

The majority of the coffee sold is sent to a diocesan office in Minnesota in 50-pound boxes. It can also be ordered from the mission's Web site, www.sanlucasmission.org, or from www.juananacoffee.com.

Because of the town's climate and elevation, the coffee is very high quality. But while such coffee is normally sold for more than $11 per pound, San Lucas charges $7.

"The key to what we've done here is to sell the best possible product at the lowest possible price to the consumer while paying the farmers the highest possible price," Msgr. Schaffer said.

The program, which started in 1992 with seven farmers, now includes coffee from some 650 families. Some families in the area started growing coffee just to get into the program.

"People want to sell their coffee to the church because Father Greg's philosophy is to do everything possible to help the farmers," said Julio Morales, one of the seven coffee farmers to start the program. "We're not rich here, but we get paid better than others around here."

Msgr. Schaffer said he has seen a marked improvement in living standards among the farmers.

"With higher prices, they're able to educate their children. They can pay for health care. And they don't have to worry about going hungry," he said. "That's the real goal."

The San Lucas Mission has been able to consistently pay a high price because it has taken advantage of a strong solidarity market in the United States. Churches, universities and high schools, which often use the coffee for fundraisers, are the biggest buyers of the coffee.

The second-largest source of the mission's sales comes from visitors and volunteers who return to the U.S. with coffee stuffed into their suitcases.

They often come to volunteer at one of the handful of other projects the mission runs. On a recent weekday, midwives were working in the mission's hospital, and a recent high school graduate was finishing off a soccer field that will be put to use by the mission's students.

Minnesota resident Ray Busch, who first visited San Lucas in 1974, cleared plates from the dining hall recently and said he was planning to take 25 pounds of coffee home with him.

"For me this is really a spiritual retreat," said Busch, who said he contributes $400 monthly to the mission.

"It's really easy to bring coffee back and there's really no shortage of places to distribute it," Busch said. At home, he said, the coffee will be sold everywhere from his local diocese to his chiropractor's office.

The coffee, harvested by hand, comes from the steep hills around the town of San Lucas Toliman. It is washed three times, dried under the sun, and slowly roasted in steel drums over firewood. The process is so labor-intensive that the mission's output has been hampered.

With a grant, the mission is building new drying patios and buying new processing equipment that should allow it to double its production to 15,000 pounds per year and attract more growers.

"We don't have a problem with demand. The big thing is to get more people involved selling to us," said Msgr. Schaffer. "The more people we can get in, the more we can help."

END

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