AGUA PRIETA, Mexico — A quiet revolution was born in the town of Salvador Urbina in Chiapas, Mexico, when several small farming families joined together to form the first of a number of organic coffee growing co-operatives more than five years ago.

Café Justo is a coffee growers’ co-operative in a small town called Salvador Urbina, located in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. About 40 families with small coffee farms grow organic coffee as a part of the co-op.
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After harvesting and drying in Chiapas, the coffee seeds are bagged and trucked eight hours to Agua Prieta in the northern state of Sonora, which is just south of the Arizona border, said Adrian Cifuentes, director of production for Café Justo and a member of the co-op. Once there, the beans are roasted, packaged and shipped to domestic and international locations.

The co-op has 10 employees, Cifuentes said. Seven employees work in Agua Prieta, Sonora - just across the border from Douglas, Ariz. - roasting and packaging the coffee. The other three work in Chiapas, near the 40 farms that make up the co-op.

The co-op has not done all of this alone.

Gonzales, director of customer relations and marketing, said that Frontera de Cristo, a Presbyterian border ministry, helped them get a loan to buy their first roaster about five years ago.

Then in 2006, the ministry, along with Living Waters for the World, another Presbyterian organization, installed a water purification system in the co-op building in Salvador Urbina, according to the 2006 Frontera de Cristo annual report and the Living Waters Web site.

Daniel Gonzales said the ministry has been instrumental in giving the co-op a leg up, selling the beans and grounds in Presbyterian churches all over the United States.

Beyond the farmer-owned company’s organic goodness, it has also done much for the families who grow the beans.

The co-op does everything from growing, harvesting, trucking, roasting and packaging the coffee, Cifuentes said. In doing so, it has created jobs, health care and retirement benefits for farming families in Mexico.

For more detail on the organic and business sides of the story, please select another story, below.

An Experience Driving down to the town of Agua Prieta in Sonora, Mexico, to do interviews and take photographs for this story was an interesting trip. When we set out, we used a global positioning system so we wouldn’t get lost, which was wise because the trip took us on winding roads through mountainous terrain on the way south from Tucson. Upon arriving in Douglas, Ariz., a town just north of the U.S.-Mexico border, we were given a ride by Adrian Gonzales, Café Justo’s director of customer relations and marketing. Agua Prieta is a bustling border town with rich architecture ranging from the poorest stucco houses to walled-off mansions. Gonzales turned down so many little roads, we couldn’t have found our way out if we had a compass. After passing a concrete factory, we finally pulled up to the Café Justo production plant — a tiny, yet colorfully painted building on a dirt road. As soon as we entered, we could smell the savory scent of freshly roasted coffee. The first thing Daniel Cifuentes, the director of production, did was offer us cups of coffee: a worthy welcome to a pair of journalists. The coffee, freshly roasted and ground, tasted great. Although the coffee roasting equipment and beans created a cramped working space, nobody seemed to mind. Everyone was eager to tell us about the operation. It is truly a homegrown business. Every family member possesses a stake in the co-op, so they all pitch in to make it successful. Graciously taking time away from his duties, Cifuentes was kind enough to explain how coffee is produced and processed. The trip was an example of learning while having fun. We got to meet great, hardworking people with a mission, drink great coffee and take in some gorgeous Arizona countryside on the way back, too.

Produced by nature, organic coffee benefits all

Growing organic food is pretty high up on the list of good things to do for the planet, but one group of coffee growers is taking it a step further.






Café Justo: It's all in the family

A growing business model puts more profits, health and retirement benefits into the hands of small coffee producers in Mexico.

Scroll down to see coffee roasting in action!

                        Music: "Modern Jazz Samba," by Kevin MacLeod.