Cooperative San Fernando in Cusco, Peru

Take your time and read this story...

Cooperative San Fernando (Cusco, Peru); remember this name because it could mean ‘an inspiring and successful cooperative'.

Cooperative assessment is an in-depth analysis of the current and future business case of the organisation in terms of the value chain, service delivery to members, marketing and risks.

The purpose of the Cooperative assessment is to describe the current situation (finance, governance, reputation) and to look towards the future and a solid business case.

The objectives are the following:

• Assess the financial performance and the financial sustainability and conduct a financial health check on the status of the financial management.
• Conduct an appraisal of the current performance of the organisation in terms of governance, with a governance health check, human resource management and management information.
• Review the reputation of the cooperative by talking with members and stakeholders of the cooperative.
• Give recommendations to the cooperative on how to improve on the above-mentioned topics.

Three weeks ago, we carried out a cooperative assessment of this organisation.

San Fernando cooperative consists of producers of fine coffees located in the remote areas of Cusco. After 13 hours of a road trip from Cusco city, passing through mountains of up to 4600 sea level, impressive landscapes, but also very dangerous chasms where the roads are winding and are so narrow that they seem only one way and the abysses accompany almost all the crossing, we finally reached San Fernando cooperative. Accompanied by 2 Peruvian Agripool experts, specialists for more than 20 years in the production and marketing of coffees, we had an intense week of 5 days with challenging results. This cooperative and members live in an area so far away that only a few organisations can get there to bring their experience and knowledge. We were very well received by the technical team and its members. However, this did not influence us to make the analysis as strict as possible and evaluate their chances to be chosen as clients of Agriterra.

We took into consideration several aspects and elements to come to a final decision, among them it’s worth mentioning the following:

• There is a young team that is highly committed to the organization.
• Some deficiencies in the accounting and business administration can be improved with goodwill, great work and effort.
• San Fernando’s members are very eager to improve their cooperative, but they do not know how to.
• Their very high-quality coffee rates 83 points, but that can reach 90 points upwards, like its neighbour ‘Inkawasi cooperative’ that has just won the prize for the best coffee in the world with 97 points; this objective can be achieved with some modifications in post-harvest processes.

Most importantly, one of the things that determined us is that these people deserve an opportunity to improve their quality of life. Agriterra is taking on the challenge to collaborate with San Fernando in 2020, while we gratifyingly see that this cooperative has already started the implementation of several of the suggested improvements, so this story promises ... that change and innovation can really come where almost nobody goes.

Sandra Esaine, business advisor, Agriterra, Peru