Located in the southern Ecuador province of Zamora-Chinchipe, The ACRIM cooperative is made up of 145 members, with average farms smaller than two hectares. The cooperative is a standard-bearer for specialty coffee in the area, and notably started the annual Brocomoros coffee festival and cupping competition, which celebrates and rewards quality coffee.
Counter Culture first purchased coffee from the ACRIM cooperative in 2015. We were introduced to these coffees through our exporting partner, Caravela, who provides quality control and agronomy support to ACRIM members. Previously, this quality control was done remotely; producers from ACRIM trucked their coffees six hours north to Caravela’s purchasing station in the town of Cariamanga. In recent years, Caravela and ACRIM worked together to build cupping and quality control capacity at the cooperative in Zumba. With this new infrastructure in place, we're excited to build a brand for ACRIM’s coffee and develop a more direct partnership with the cooperative.
We believe in paying more.
Since 2009, we have published an annual transparency report to serve as a blueprint for our green coffee purchasing practices and a response to chronically low prices in the coffee industry. We believe paying more for green coffee is an important investment in the long-term viability of our coffee-growing partners’ businesses and our supply.
