Back to the newsIn northern Peru, the Norandino cooperative was born of the desire of young people from farming families in the Sierra de Piura to organize a fairer, more sustainable coffee industry. Today, Norandino is the country’s leading coffee exporting cooperative. The organization operates under democratic governance, with strong community roots. It has also progressively diversified its product lines: coffee, cocoa, chocolate paste and panela sugar, while continuing to develop food crops for self-consumption and the local market. In twenty years, this movement has succeeded in bringing together 7,000 families and has contributed to a profound transformation of local living conditions.
Peru is a middle-income country with significant natural resources, both mineral and food. Almost a third of the population lives in Lima. There are major inequalities between the urban areas and the Andean or Amazonian zones, where the majority of the population is indigenous. Peru is experiencing repeated political crises (5 Presidents of the Republic in 6 years, ten Prime Ministers in the same period).
Through its cooperative organisation, Norandino enables producers to come together to obtain better marketing conditions for their produce, with the aim of adding value through processing and the search for organic and fair-trade markets. Thanks to its technical department, Norandino channels substantial resources from international cooperation and the Peruvian government into investment for the benefit of its members.
