We've received devastating news from our farmer partners in Peru. Many of them have lost their crops, farms, homes and even lives due to flooding and mudslides that happened in Santa Theresa last Sunday.
To support the Cooperative in recovery, we are donating all profits* from sales of Natural Spirit, House Roast and Decaf Andes Mountains (which include coffee from the area) on our website for the next week, to the cooperative.
You can find out more by reading on below, or
Shop the coffees here, and help us provide much needed support.
In September 2019 we visited Huadquiña cooperative in Peru, our partner since 2016. During our last visit, Hebert Quispe Palomino, General Manager of Huadquiña, explained that the rainy season runs from November to April. It can rain and snow heavily in the Andes and there have been occasions of torrential rains in some parts of the country. In 1998 a landslide-created flood in Santa Theresa affected over 340 families. The flood wiped out parts of the area, and over 80% of the houses in the old part of Santa Teresa were destroyed or partly damaged. Houses were rebuilt into a safer area, people rebuilt their livelihoods, and coffee was an important element of the recovery.
Little did we know that 5 months later a disaster of similar scale would happen.
Hebert sent us the following message yesterday;
"I have no words to describe everything that happened on Sunday afternoon. The Salkantay Basin was hit by a flood of huge proportions, most of the affected are members of the Cooperativa Huadquiña.
I can’t find the words to explain to you in detail the desolation and anguish of many elderly and children who lost everything. Many have only the clothes they wore, some lost their relatives, others recovered what they could, others are isolated with no communication possible.
We are doing we can to help those affected. There is no road access - almost 60% of the roads have been lost. There is no electricity, no mobile phone network. Many of the associates in this basin have lost their farms, their homes, even human lives.
Three years ago these farmers have started working to renew their coffee plantations. Now when their coffee has become productive (the tree becomes productive after 3 years) they have lost all their investments. We need humanitarian assistance.
Thank you for any help you can give."
* All profits from sales of Natural Spirit, House Roast and Decaf Andes Mountains Coffees go towards humanitarian aid to our farmer partnes of the Huadquina Cooperative in Peru. Includes any and all sizes and grinds of these coffees purchased from the unionroasted.com website (only), From 00:01am 27/02/2020 until 11:59pm 05/03/2020 inclusive.
