Our Producer Partners

Paraguay

Manduvirá Sugar Co-operative, Paraguay
Creating Safe Markets for Farmers

One of La Siembra Co-op's sources for its Fair Trade Certified organic sugar is Manduvirá Co-operative Ltd. in Paraguay. It is comprised of 193 producers who each produce 40 metric tonnes/hectare of sugar cane. Manduvirá Co-operative Ltd. was founded in 1975 in order to support small farmers who did not have guaranteed markets for their products and had difficulty with the commercialization of their products.
The objective of Manduvirá Co-operative Ltd. is to offer marketing services to its members, as well as credit facilities, technical support, and training. The co-operative currently offers credit services for financing production, marketing services, provides training conferences about co-operatives and operates a credit union.

One of the biggest success stories resulting from producer visits this year is underscored by La Siembra's import of the first container of Fair Trade organic cane sugar from Manduvirá Co-operative in Paraguay. Manduvirá has taken steps to become a miller and exporter of its own sugar cane for the first time in its 30-year-history and La Siembra had the opportunity to investigate this project and get concretely behind it by committing to importing the first container.