Osbins Path to Renewing His Coffee Farm

In the highlands of Huehuetenango, Guatemala, coffee farmer Osbin Gustavo Canin Canin grows coffee in the municipality of Unión Cantinil, working alongside other smallholder producers who depend on healthy plants for stable yields and income. Many members of their cooperative, the Asociación de Apicultores y Caficultores (AAPICAFI), face similar challenges: aging coffee plants that are increasingly vulnerable to pests and disease, and limited access to agricultural inputs makes it difficult for individual farmers to renew their fields. These shared issues create a collective risk for the long-term productivity and livelihoods of the entire producer group. The Fair Trade model provides a structure for a Fair Trade Committee that allows producers to discuss priorities and agree on how to address shared needs. In this democratic forum, members regularly raised concerns about declining yields and plant disease, recognizing that these challenges affected both individual farms and the association as a whole. By considering the producers’ perspectives, the committee identified investments that could benefit everyone. Using Community Development Funds, they approved the purchase of pest-resistant coffee plants, selecting varieties suited to local conditions and distributing them based on farm needs. With these plants, growers such as Osbin have been able to renew their coffee plots over time, improving plant health and productivity. “Thanks to this process, we have obtained plants, and with these we have managed to renew our coffee plantations and we’ve had very good harvests” Osbin said. For him and other members, healthier plants support more reliable harvests and help reduce losses linked to disease and climate stress. By prioritizing projects through collective decision-making, the association strengthens coffee production at the farm level while contributing to broader stability for producer families and the community.