i Patrick W. Staib Anthropology This dissertation is approved, and it ...

of their member-farmers, but mostly I learned about their activities through the criticisms
of their operations made by non-member farmers and agronomists. San Juan farmers
essentially viewed PRODECO-OP as a giant, monolithic exporter from which the other
cooperatives distinguished themselves.
Table 3. San Juan del Río Coco second-level organic coffee co-ops.
San Juan del
Río Coco
Co-op
UCA
Owns dry
processing
facility?
No Atlantic
S.A.
Exporter Financier % of 2004-2005
harvest
exportable
UCPCO Yes Self Ecologics
Development Fund
Corcasan Yes CISA Agro
S.A.
Prodeco-op Yes Atlantic
S.A.
200
No. of
members
in 2005
Class of
farmer
served
Atlantic S.A. 48% 247 Small and
Medium
46% 132 Small and
Medium
CISA Agro S.A. 49% 340 Medium
and Large
Atlantic S.A. 48% 2077 Small and
Medium
Agricultural co-ops in Nicaragua started as credit and financing entities for smallholders
to access preharvest and off-season loans. Although many member-only credit unions
still exist, the four San Juan co-ops evolved from solely credit institutions into providers
of various services for their members. Today they are legally registered as credit and
service cooperatives.
These cooperatives are farmer-owned and -operated. This means that the UCA,
for example, operates on the membership fees and a percentage of the export profits from
its member farmers. Unfortunately, not all member-farmers see this arrangement as being
accessible to them or attentive to their needs. Repeatedly, farmers referred to “the