José Antonio Meneses Lira

In the mountain roads of Madriz, after Telpaneca, we find the José Alfredo Zeledón Cooperative, which gathers many small producers. They have organized themselves under this figure, in order to solve the problems of their community.

Alcides Vilchez is the treasurer of this organization. He has a lot of skills in his knowledge about cooperatives. “The objective of this cooperative is to coordinate actions to help our partners. To give them advice regarding their need for the crops, technical assistance for the coffee plantations…well…we also administer our own funds… at this moment the cooperative holds in the bank 1.5 million cordobas. This fund has been raised with the share of the partners; they give 3% and also 6% from the green coffee. The fund is used to maintain the coffee plantations of the partners.”

Jose Antonio Meneses Lira tells us that many people are very interested in belonging to this type of organization, since by this mean they can get a better support from financial organizations. Meneses Lira obtained place Number 20 in the contest “the cup of excellence”

“The coffee collector company is in charge to select the coffee that will participate in the contest. They took a sample of my coffee, the cuppers said that my coffee was very good…and to tell you the truth… I could not believe it… but now that I became a winner I thank God because we were chosen for the contest.”