Luis, 48, has been a cane farmer all his life and his land has been in the family for many generations. As a small boy he watched his father work on the farm and then helped out when he was older. As well as sugar cane, which they sold for honey manufacture, they grew beans, corn, yucca, pineapple and peanuts for the table. To keep all four children in education, his father also worked as a builder and his mother made clothes.

When his father fell ill during Luis’ first year at university, it was Luis who returned to look after the farm. There were times when the cane didn’t bring in enough income so Luis learned shoemaking and leather upholstering; today he has a small shop at the side of the house which his children look after when they can. His wife also works as a teacher so that there is enough money for all four children to go to school. They are two girls and two boys; the youngest is five and the eldest is just finishing secondary school and plans to go to university in Asuncion in January.

Luis joined Manduvirá co-operative in 1980. He has always been an active member, serving on various committees, and was elected president three years ago. The co-op holds its AGM in April and, alongside the various committees, a board of five people meets every fortnight to guide the activities of the co-op in the meantime. These days Luis is always in the office, especially in the time leading up to the harvest which lasts from May or June to October.

Cooperativa Manduvirá is now 31 years old. At one point the number of members fell to 190, but the focus on sugar cane and Fairtrade developments have revived interest with numbers in the past four years rising from 300 in 2003 to 1,200 today.

Manduvirá was certified by Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International in 1999 and made their first small sales under Fairtrade terms a couple of years later. At that time they were selling the cane to Otisa, the largest mill in Paraguay, which gave them a poor price for the crop then sold it on to Fairtrade or conventional buyers. Although the co-op received the Fairtrade premium to invest in business and social development, they saw that they could benefit further from Fairtrade if they could process the sugar at another mill and sell it themselves. However, Otisa owned the organic certification for the farms, so before they could change to a new mill, they had to become certified organic under their own name. The substantial cost of organic certification was paid for by the Fairtrade premium in a process that took two years.

Since 2005 they have been subcontracting Censi y Pirotta mill to process and package some of their sugar. The co-op office negotiates the price with the mill and arranges transportation of the cane to the mill. The processed sugar is then stored at the mill while the co-op finds a buyer, negotiates a price and organises delivery. At the moment they are selling into Italy, Belgium, Germany and Canada. The cane is not sold to the co-op by the farmers, but the co-op receives and distributes payment. The new mill is further away than the old one and transportation alone accounts for 33% of the processing costs, but even so the price the farmers receive is better than previously and the profit margin has improved now that the co-operative is able to do its own marketing.

The co-operative office has two motorbikes which staff use to regularly visit the farmers. Not all have telephones and when the weather is bad the roads are unusable as well. Electricity is relatively freely available in Paraguay, but only around 30-40% of the farms have clean running water and the housing is generally fragile, being of straw and wood construction.

Fifty percent of the premium is given out to farmers in cash and many use that to improve their housing or install a water supply. Others use it to buy school books and uniforms for their children, because although schooling is free, these essentials are not. The remaining 50% of the premium is spent on projects like the health centre, farm machinery for loan to the members, and training. This includes classes for the younger generation in Fairtrade, in farming and in co-operativism, as well as technical assistance for the farmers which is having a clear effect in increasing yields.

Recently they have purchased some land with the premium money to use as a plant research nursery, testing which strains will grow best under which conditions. Sugar cane is fickle and within the area of the members’ farms, different strains grow with varying success. The increased yields and the deepening of understanding of Fairtrade and of what it is to be a co-operative is increasing the dedication and motivation of the farmers. With the Fairtrade price farming is viable again and they are able to remain on their land rather than move to Asuncion. In the north of the country where farmers are not as organised, they are unable to stand up to the pressure of large Brazilian sugar plantations, and many are selling up and moving to the capital.

With the premium the co-op has also bought a laptop computer and projector which the office staff take out to the farms to bring training to the women who constitute some 40% of the farmers. In terms of including more women in the affairs of the co-op things are improving slowly, and now there are many women on the committees and two out of the five members of the board are women.

The co-operative has many plans for the future. Already they are selling some sesame which is harvested in ‘el tiempo muerto’, the dead time between cane harvests. Next year should see the start of an artisanal sugar processing project to build a small workshop to house an electric mill that crushes sugar cane. The collected cane juice is then heated and cooled to produce unrefined crystallized sugar known as muscovado. It will be marketed to international buyers looking for this nutritionally rich sugar that retains the natural mineral and vitamins that are lost in the refining process. They also hope to start growing citrus and mango which are less labour intensive. In five or six years they hope to have their own mill, which requires an investment of some $5 million, a project for which they are seeking funding from the EU.

“Fairtrade has opened up opportunities for us to improve our quality of life by receiving a fair return for our work. We are so proud to be selling into first world countries – it’s like a dream to be able to compete with the big multinational companies. We have more confidence now to talk to the traders and we have an understanding of the European market we are trying to reach."

“Seeing what we are achieving as a co-operative and the results of the projects motivates me – I’m not ready to give up the presidency yet!”

Fairtrade Foundation July 2006