Ucasa
UCASA, honey, Nicaragua (producer)
Not only does UCASA help farmers earn a regular income, the organisation also supports the reforestation of their farms.
Regional Representative, Marco Garcia, visited UCASA last year. He explains: “UCASA is very focused on helping the environment and replanting trees native to the area, providing more opportunity for pollination therefore improving the production of honey.”
General Manager, Maria Isabel Lopez, said:
“Having finance from Shared Interest has helped us significantly because now we have enough funds to buy honey from our producers, and this has been reflected in the increase of sales and production.”
RARE TYPE OF HONEY HELPS RURAL COMMUNITY THRIVE
Marco continues: “For families in El Sauce, there are only two ways to earn a living, because of the rural location. The fist is cattle rearing, which causes deforestation, and global warming. The second, honey production, acts in the opposite way, as it can only be successful if the farms are well nurtured and rich in tropical native trees.
“UCASA members have chosen the latter option due to their environmental concerns, even though the cattle business is less risky in terms of price variations.”
With 4,000 hives within the co-operative, 80% of UCASA’s production is organic honey. UCASA’s Shared Interest facility allows them to buy the honey from the farmers when harvested between November and March, in advance of the export season in April and May.
Marco continues: “UCASA has explained that without our investors, they could not pay their farmers on time, or have the resources to buy books for schools and supplies for churches in their area.”
You can read more about UCASA in QR 103 here.
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