Over the past 20 years, we’ve offered hundreds of coffee businesses the capital and training they need to succeed. But to truly maximize their impact, these businesses sometimes require additional support. That’s why, in partnership with USAID Feed the Future, we launched a Resilience Fund that provides $20,000 grants to some of our highest-performing client businesses in Colombia and Peru.
Read moreTopics: Livelihoods | South America | Stories of Impact | Youth |
As we begin the journey up into the mountains, a small clearing in the trees opens, revealing the city of Santa Marta behind us and the crystal-blue ocean beyond. Sitting on sideways-facing benches inside of a twenty-year-old Toyota Land Cruiser, we rattle up the mountain. Our driver honks at everyone we pass—it seems like he knows every farmer, shopkeeper, and truck driver on the road.
Read moreTopics: Our Community | South America |
By the time the sun rises at Finca Eskandia, the farm has already come alive.
Read moreTopics: Environment | Peace | South America | Stories of Impact |
When actors across the coffee supply chain invest in quality, everyone benefits—from the farmer who earns better prices to the consumer who enjoys a better cup. Last month, we teamed up with specialty coffee pioneer Intelligentsia and coffee producers from across Colombia to learn how to make coffee better—for the people who drink it and those who grow it.
Read moreTopics: Partnerships | Peace | South America | Stories of Impact |
For the majority of Colombia’s 53-year civil war, the southern province of Cauca was a stronghold of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). In the dog-eared copy of Lonely Planet that I’ve brought with me, the area isn’t even mentioned. Just ten years ago, it was not a recommended destination for tourists. Today, it not only feels safe; it feels welcoming.
Read moreTopics: Peace | South America | Stories of Impact |
For our client businesses in Peru, deforestation and climate change aren’t distant threats. They’re daily realities. Many of these coffee businesses are located at the edge of the Amazon rainforest, the largest contiguous forest in the world. But while it may seem limitless, this precious region is in danger of disappearing forever.
Read moreTopics: Our Community | Partnerships | South America |
Para las empresas con las que trabajamos en Perú, la deforestación y el cambio climático no son amenazas lejanas, son realidades cotidianas. Muchos de estos negocios de café se encuentran en el borde de la selva amazónica, contiguo al bosque más grande del mundo. Pero aunque puede parecer que no tiene límites, esta preciosa región está en peligro de desaparecer para siempre.
Read moreTopics: En Español | Our Community | Partnerships | South America |
In this month’s Root Capital Roundup, we explore how the illicit drug trade affects farming communities in three Latin American countries where we work… and how agricultural businesses offer people a peaceful alternative.
Read moreTopics: Mexico and Central America | Peace | South America |
Thirty years ago, this place looked very different. Nestled in the foothills where the Amazon rainforest meets the towering Andes Mountains, the Peruvian town of San Martín de Pangoa exudes an aura of calm. Life seems to move at a leisurely pace; ambling through the town’s mostly-unpaved streets, you’ll see mototaxis rumble slowly past indigenous women cradling their babies in brightly-colored wool blankets. The hills rising above the town are patchworked with a lattice of small farms, and every moto and pickup truck seems to be laden with nearly-bursting sacks of coffee.
Read moreTopics: Environment | Peace | South America | Stories of Impact | Women in Agriculture | Youth |
Root Capital board members and staff with the leaders of ANEI, a Fair Trade and organic coffee cooperative in Colombia In late February, I joined a few members of Root Capital’s staff and fellow Board members in traveling to visit ANEI, a Fair Trade and organic coffee cooperative located in the mountains of northeastern Colombia, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. The cooperative, which has been a Root Capital client since 2012, has 700 small-scale coffee farming family members from four indigenous groups – the Arhuacos, Koguis, Wiwas, and Kankuamos – each with a distinct language.
Read moreTopics: Our Community | South America |
