Quiché - smallholders from Chajul

In 2012, three agronomists organised themselves with the idea of improving and supporting the production of farmers in the Chajul area. Chajul is a small town in the department of El Quiché, in the Western Highlands of Guatemala, right next to the Visis Cabá biosphere reserve. The agronomists created Aproveg (Asociation of Vegetable Growers of the Ixil Area - the Ixil are a Maya people indigenous to the country) and started with green vegetable farming, followed by tomato production, a product that was sold in the same municipality, and they worked like that for a few years. 

In 2016, some local coffee growers approached one of the founders of Aproveg and asked for support in the sale of coffee because intermediaries were buying coffee at a low price which did not contribute much to the work that was being done in the area. Back then, the only organisation that bought coffee was the Chajulense association and they were no longer receiving new members that year. The founders of Aproveg, with goodwill, began looking for organisations that could buy coffee and ended up contacting Fecceg in the neighbouring department of Quetzaltenango.

This was the beginning of the relationship between Fecceg and the Chajul farmers, based in several communities in the municipality, such as Chel, La Laguna Batzchocola, La Perla, Sotzil, Cajchixla and Xemac. Today, Quiché is one of Fecceg's strongest coffee "brands" and it the name of their roasted coffee sold in the internal market.