Meet Sixto, one of the amazing farmers who works with us in the quinoa fields of Peru.

Meet Cristobal.  Photo taken in front of processing facility, holding one of our vintage product designs!  Has been part of coop since its beginnings over 10 years ago. Grows 4 varieties of quinoa and has been having trouble with larvae on his potato crop, which the organic fumigation is struggling to keep under control- but will never resort to chemicals  Is a bit worried by climate change,but has diversified his fields so that quite far away from each other- the biggest nightmare of any quinoa grower here is a hail storm that can destroy half a quinoa crop.  But they...

Meet Calixto. Head of quality in the coop’s processing plant. Quinoa comes in as and when cooperants want to sell a bit. Process is then the following: initial sorting to get rid of stones etc, scarified so outer saponin layer can be washed off. Put in washer and then dried outside in sun. Then goes through rotating cylinders that select for grain size. Then via optical selector that gets rid of all remaining foreign material. Finally in a wind machine that gets rid of any remaining dust. Then packed in 25kg bags

Meet Mario. Mario is the son of a producer, and has a little land himself. He has been elected to the post of President of the coop for three years and is married with a daughter. His role is full time and focused on the political side of the coop- keeping the members on side, explaining what is happening at the coop level etc. Given there are about 500 producers within the coop, subdivided into a slightly more manageable 15 sub associations, it is no mean feat to keep everyone on side. Farmers tend to be fairly traditional and stubborn,...