UCIRI in Oaxaca, Mexico (abstract)

Leer artículo | icon Comentarios | Publicado el 31 de Mayo 2005

Autor: Horacio Almanza-Alcalde

The Union of Indigenous Communities of the Isthmus Region includes peasant coffee producers from 53 different communities in the lowlands of the Sierra Juarez, mainly within five different municipalities. They belong to the Zapotec (from the Sierra), Mixe and Chontal ethnic groups, and founded UCIRI in 1984, which is now legally registered to export coffee and other products. To sell coffee always has been difficult for the producers. Before the establishment of Inmecafe, they had to sell to middlemen at low prices, due to the lack of transport roads to Ixtepec. Soon after some logging companies arrived, made some roads, and were driven away by the communities in 1977, they were visited by other coffee buyers and Inmecafe, which opened coffee reception centres and slightly improved the price. Their problems continued with Inmecafe, where they suffered continuous discounts on their payments because of strict requirements, and with the bank, where they became indebted due to high interest rates (Vander Hoff and Galvan, 1998: 129-130).

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