Intag Valley - AACRI - Community-Led Co-Operative (Ecuador)

Description

The Asociación Agroartesanal de Caficultores Río Intag (AACRI) is a community-led cooperative in northern Ecuador’s Intag Valley (Imbabura province), founded in 1998 by just 18 families and now encompassing around 150–215 local smallholder producers. Producing varietals such as: Caturra, Typica and Bourbon. AACRI cultivates shade‑grown Arabica coffee at altitudes between 1200-1900masl, using agroforestry and organic methods that protect native cloud forest ecosystems and local biodiversity. Organized democratically through a fair‑trade model, the cooperative sets coffee prices in annual assemblies to ensure stable and equitable income for member families, while providing credit, technical assistance, and post‑harvest processing support. Through this work, AACRI not only supplies high‑quality organic coffee to global markets, but also offers a viable economic alternative to environmentally destructive mining in the region. This coffee offers a pleasant acidity, balanced body, fragrant aroma, and flavour notes from red fruits, citrus to, vanilla and a brown sugar sweetness.