Founded in 2010 in Peru, COOPAIN CABANA is an agro-industrial cooperative that produces organic quinoa and cañihua. Currently composed of more than 600 families, it is a cooperative that practises family farming. These families grow, process and market organic products adapted to national and international markets. The activity of this cooperative allows a better socio-economic situation for the partners and families while still respecting the environment.
The efforts undertaken with the support of NGOs and development agencies enabled the cooperative COOPAIN CABANA to obtain several important certifications: organic, kosher, HACCP (certification for food safety and quality) and GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices).
Many concrete actions have been carried out, particularly to promote the access of families to basic services. However, it is in the area of women’s empowerment that these commitments have probably been the most remarkable. The COOPAIN CABANA cooperative has been heavily involved in this from the start and it has increased the number of initiatives promoting the involvement of women in activities.
For the cooperative, the TDC financed a project of 60,162 euros over a period of 27 months. This project resulted in a more competitive COOPAIN CABANA for the export and local trading of quinoa and quinoa-based products. More precisely, the project increased the organisation’s organic production capacity and improved harvesting and storage systems.
Carrying out the project’s different activities like farmer training, the acquisition of new equipment, the mobilisation of technical advisers in the field, the implementation of quality control structures, etc. have had a very rapid impact: in less than a year, sales increased significantly (by over 30%) as did farmer incomes (by 10%).
