DECOIN AND THE CAFE RIO INTAG STORY

Carlos Zorrilla
Cafe Río Intag is the brand of a coffee produced by a small coffee coop in the rugged
mountainous region of Northwest Ecuador. The coop was born in 1998 thanks to DECOIN,
the small-grass roots organization that I have been intimately involved with since 1995. That
was the date the first resistance to a large-scale mining project in Ecuador began, and one
which, 23 years later is, unfortunately, still ongoing. Cafe Río Intag has played a role in that
history, and one which I felt there was a need to tell.

It might seem unusual that I have chosen to write about DECOIN’s and my part in the
creation of the Rio Intag Cafe when it celebrates it’s its twentieth anniversary. Yet, there are a
couple of good reasons that motivated me to finally do it. The first was realizing that the
environmental message associated with the existence of Café Río Intag had disappeared,
replaced by a commercial one. It’s almost as if the people in charge were ashamed of the
publicizing the real reason for the existence of the organization. I also felt, that many current
members- a fair percentage of whom were not around when the organization was created- are
unaware this crucial aspect linked to the organization.

But there was another troubling reason for my desire to write about the coffee project. Lately
I’ve read couple of academic papers on Intag’s struggle against mining. In both cases, the
papers distorted the facts on this 23-year long struggle to reflect more of the author’s biases.
In the case of an anthropologist with strong feminist views, she purposely and unrealistically
elevated the role of women’s organizations in the resistance, while grossly under reporting the
role of other organizations, such as DECOIN’s. Undoubtedly women have played a very
important role in the resistance, but it was troubling to see how history could so easily be
manipulated to reflect a personal bias. Hers was not the only publication exhibiting personal
biases, but it was the one that opened my eyes to the distortion academics can manifest when
they are unwilling or unable to set aside their bias. There are, for sure, exceptions to this, such
as the publications by Tammy Lewis. But it was sobering to read how misrepresented Intag’s
epic struggle against mining could be. So, this will be the first of several installments on the
struggle.

Back to the story

Cafe Rio Intag’s coffee is produced much like the rest of the world’s coffee: by small farmers
and in small plots (usually less than 2 hectares). The relatively small association marketing
the coffee (AACRI, for its Spanish acronym), was founded in 1998, and is currently made up
of aproximately165 active members. AACRI’s production is small by most coffee coop
standards, with the usual harvest under 100 tons per year. Most of the coffee is sold within
Ecuador, but a substantial part goes to France, Canada, the United States and Japan. Most of
the exported coffee is certified organic.

Coffee with a Story

The coffee project was born as part of a response to stop Bishimetals, the Mitsubishi
subsidiary, to their and the government’s plans of opening a large-scale open pit copper mine
in Intag’s biodiverse Toisan Range. Our idea was to come up with sustainable economic
alternatives to the devastating mining project for the local population. And, in 1996, the
second year of the resistance to the mining project, DECOIN and I were looking for ways to
cover some of the expenses incurred in helping communities fight the mine. At that time, and
for years afterwards, all of our work was on a volunteer basis. As you read this, keep in mind
that were up against what was, at the time, the world’s largest corporation, and it was in
Ecuador as a guest of the Ecuadorian government.

Fortunately many people in Intag produced some coffee on their property, so there was
already a coffee culture. Not only that, but by a lucky coincidence, people in Intag had always
picked only the ripe berries for processing, which produces the finest quality coffee. In
contrast, at harvest time in many coffee-producing countries, all the coffee berries, whether
ripe or not, are stripped from the coffee bush as a way to reduce labor. Another factor that
sold me on the idea was the fact that most of Intag is above 1200 meters above sea level- a
perfect elevation for good Arabica coffee production. It was also encouraging that all of
Intag’s coffee was shade-grown (under the cover of trees), which appealed to one of
DECOIN’s goals of protecting biological diversity. Finally, it helped that I myself produced
coffee back then and my friends always commented on the fine quality of the brew they drank
while visiting me.

First Sales
DECOIN started selling Intag coffee in late 1996 or early 1997 to friends, then a couple of
restaurants in the Otavalo area. I recall SISA and Hacienda Cusin being two of them. At the
start, we bought coffee from just a few friends and my ex-neighbors in the town of Apuela,
and the wives took charge of toasting it. However, because it was tradition to roast the coffee
in large, clay bowls called tiestos, over an open fire it was a very difficult to get coffee to be
evenly toasted, and was easy to over-roast it. In other words, it was a pain to sell. I was lucky
that the restaurant owners were friends and took burned coffee as a gesture of solidarity,
because it really was just burned coffee what I often sold them.
Either in late 1997 or early 1998, right around the time frustration selling coffee was swelling,
I met a young Quito-based agronomist who had come to Intag attracted by the resistance to
the mining project. DECOIN hired him to do a quick assessment of the possibilities of
expanding the nascent coffee project to all of Intag. Seeing the results were positive
encouraged us to pursue the plan.
It didn’t take long to figure out that if we were serious about selling the coffee we not only
needed real coffee roaster, but a brand name to differentiate our coffee from the rest. The
name Café Río Intag occurred to me one day as I was driving to Apuela with the river on my
right. It is a river that connects most of our area’s communities, farms and forests. Knowing a
name would not be enough, I chose the Plate-billed Mountain Toucan for the logo; one of the
most beautiful birds in Intag. The toucan is endemic to southwest Colombia and northwest
Ecuador, and we thought it would help to highlight the biodiversity crisis the mining project
presented. My then wife, Sandra Statz, drew the bird for the logo; which is still used by the
coop.
Ok, so far, we had a name and a logo, but I felt we needed something else to really
differentiate our coffee from the rest. Luckily, at the time, there was a group of women
artisans based at our farm making beautiful hand-woven handicrafts from sisal fiber, a fiber
extracted from a plant grown in the region. Thus, it was natural to market our coffee in the
sisal bags. In Ecuador, 20 years later, Café Río Intag is still sold in the beautiful bags.
The Birth of the Coffee Association
At the beginning the bags as well as the whole operation was rather rudimentary. The labels
were made by photocopying the logo and environmental message on thick art paper of
varying colors, and then attached to the bag with a strand of sisal fiber. This was the scenario
until 1998, when selling the coffee became too time-consuming for DECOIN (and me
personally) and we saw the benefits of expanding the coffee business to present an economic
alternative to mining. And for this, we needed help.

Even though the marketing aspect was too much for our small organization to handle, we felt
thee coffee project held great promise due to Intag’s combination of elevation, temperature
and rainfall. It was then that we decided to seek help from a Spanish-funded NGO- Ayuda en
Acción to expand the coffee project. Instead of having the coffee project be part of our
organization, we decided to form a new organization, and thus, AACRI came into being
(Asociación Agroartesanal de Caficultores Rio Intag). The first meeting was made up of just a
handful of coffee growers from the Apuela area and DECOIN’s members. The main suppliers
of coffee at the time were people like Gonzalo Hidalgo, Rigoberto Piedra, and Eduardo
Bolaños; all three still residing in Apuela.
At that meeting, as I recall, it was decided to keep the name of the coffee as Río Intag. We
also decided to give the Association a decidedly environmental focus. These included the
requisite that the coffee had to be produced under the shade of native trees, to produce it
under organic and fair trade standards as much as possible, and that the Association’s
members could not support mining activities. The bylaws contained several other
environmental measures to assure sustainable growing practices.

Hallelujah! No more burned coffee!

With the Spanish NGO’s support, it was finally possible to purchase decent roasting
equipment, rent our own building, and begin to expand the coffee production from a few
plants in people’s back yards. One of the first thing the association did was begin an intensive
training program to teach growers how to increase production sustainably, and begin to look
for, and experiment with more productive and disease resistant varieties. In 1998 most of
Intag’s coffee production came from the Typica variety of the Arabica genus, a tall-growing
variety well adapted to Intag’s wet climate. However, Typica is not a outstanding producer
and is not as disease resistant as other varieties, such as Caturra. On the other hand, Typica
has a excellent taste sought after many coffee connoisseurs. .
And then came the Japanese
Recall from the first part of the report, that DECOIN and then AACRI, both came into being
because the threat of a large-scale copper mining project. That project, was funded by the
Japanese government, and unfortunately, during initial exploration, discovered a probable
large copper deposit lying hundreds of meters below primary cloud forests harboring dozens
of species of animals facing extinction. That threat still hangs over our communities, our
cloud forests, and rivers and streams. This, in spite of the fact that the Japanese and later a
Canadian mining company had to abandon the project due to local resistance (today, two
state-owned mining companies; Codelco from Chile and Ecuador’s Enami, are again
exploring in these biodiverse forests and pristine streams and are closer than ever to opening
the mine- see below for more information).
Organic Coffee, a Japanese coffee importer heard about the mining project and the coffee
initiative and decided to lend a helping hand. In 1998 Organic Coffee was the first
international buyer of our coffee and offered the Association fair-trade prices for the product,
even though the Association was not certified as such. The owner, Mr. Nakamura, also
inspired the Association to grow the coffee organically. Undoubtedly, the association with
Organic Coffee- which continues to this day- was key to help the small association find other
international markets and keep producing one of the finest coffees in Ecuador, and the world.

Stepping Aside
A few years after its founding, I took the decision to withdraw from active participation in the
coffee organization. This was partly because the fight against the mining project was (and still
is) taking much to much of our time. I and DECOIN also felt that it was in good hands with
the support of the Spanish NGO. .
From 1998 to the present, it’s pretty much a story of slow, but steady growth. However I
would be lying if I were to tell you that it has been all smooth sailing. Like all collectives or
businesses, AACRI has suffered many setbacks, including lack of production to cover bills;
years of bad harvests; competition from a mining-company funded coffee coop; plus poor
management (which still haunts the organization). Poor management has had a debilitating
impact on the organization, for during the past several years, growers have had to wait months
until they are paid for the product. Understandably, this has led to members abandoning the
organization and production stagnating. It has also been disheartening seeing how individuals
with very close ties to management have taken over the brand name and opened coffee shops,
and without legal permission, using the name Café Río Intag.

Yet in spite of the challenges and setbacks, AACRI keeps going. It is my fervent hope that the
organization keeps going strong, but that it does not forget its origins and the reason for its
existence. It is no less important that it resumes its role in supporting the anti-mining struggle
in Intag, which it abandoned many years ago.

For more information on AACRI and Café Río Intag see http://www.aacri.com/

For more information on the decades-long struggle against mining see: www.decoin.org
www.codelcoecuador.com
And DECOIN’s Facebook https://www.facebook.com/decoinorg/

Youtube and Vimeo: There are several documentaries, long ans short, on Intag’s resistance
to mining. Just search under Intag and Pocho Alvarez
Documentaries: Under Rich Earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRinnhejBIw&t=61s&ab_channel=CarlosZorrilla
Javier, con i de Intag https://vimeo.com/155937763