Pacayal La Torre, Edgar Carrillo Organic ORGANIC

Edgar Carrilo is the founder of Pacayal, a small, ten-year-old cooperative in La Paz, the Comayuga Valley, outside of Marcala. It’s a region of ~ 8000 people, all coffee producers, mostly of Lenca ethnicity, and considered to be the poorest in La Paz. In 2012, Edgar founded Pacayal in the wake of a devastating round of La Roya with the motto ‘quality does not suffer crisis’. From this start, and with the support of Sustainable Harvest, Edgar and family had the contracts, financing (via Root Capital), and technical assistance they needed to get off the ground. At their max Pacayal was able to include over 130 households in their network – all neighbors of Edgar and his extended family. They were able to get certifications (FairTrade and Organic), distribute premiums, elect representatives and have participate in one of Honduras’ smallest exporting cooperative unions.