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

emote parts of the community to find coffee for the co-op. Danilo’s second-level co-op,
UCA San Juan del Rio Coco, signs contracts with exporters to supply a certain amount of
coffee, and then, in turn, the co-op will offer preharvest financing to farmers based on
their estimated yields. The UCA runs the risk of losing future business if it cannot fulfill
its contracts.
The 2005–2006 harvest cycle saw better international coffee prices than the year
before. This brought interesting challenges to managing co-ops. As the UCA’s
accountant, Javier Vanegas, explained when I interviewed him in April 2006, “Cuando
están bajos los precios, los productores buscan la cooperativa y pretenden su lealdad.
Cuando los precios están altos, venden en la calle (When prices are low, farmers turn to
the co-op for assistance and give their loyalty. When prices are high, they’ll sell on the
street).” That is, when prices are high they will sell to coyotes who pay cash for product
instead of turning their harvest over to the co-op and waiting sometimes six months to get
paid. When this happens, the co-ops run the risk of being unable to meet the demand for
export quality, Fair Trade, and organic coffee.
It was in this situation that Danilo and the UCA administration requested my
assistance in obtaining coffee ‘llenar los contenedores (to fill the containers).” Danilo
was calling in old debts—even one from his father, for whom Danilo had paid hospital
bills earlier that year when his father suffered a stroke. We were also getting coffee from
larger farmers and conventional farmers. The UCA liquidated capital to begin coyoteando
(brokering) in the community. I asked Griselda Jarquin, the president of the UCA, if it
worried her that certifiers would find out that her cooperative was including product
under their certifications that was not in fact certified. She answered, “Es que, hay que
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