Udepom

Unión de Ejidos Profesor Otilio Montaño (UDEPOM) is a coffee cooperative located in the Sierra Madre region of Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala, a region that has endured poor infrastructure, high unemployment rates, high illiteracy rates and low life expectancy.

Local small-scale coffee producers (who come from diverse ethnic groups) created UDEPOM to combat these problems by seeking stable and fair prices for their coffee and to gain direct access to international markets, avoiding the speculative abuses of large middlemen and middlewomen.

UDEPOM achieved Fairtrade certification for their coffee in 2003. The members are committed to maintaining their natural resources and pioneered organic agricultural production in the area. The indigenous Mayan cooperatives use traditional knowledge as a basis for organic farming methods, as well as running training courses funded by Fairtrade premiums.

Fairtrade premiums are being used to create a low-interest microcredit programme for members to enable them to carry out their projects, and thus improve the living conditions of their community.