ElevaFinca represents commodities produced from an alliance of cooperatives participating in agroforestry projects launched and financed by Urapi Sustainable Land Use Fund (a private equity fund). ElevaFinca acts as a facilitator at origin for buyers, providing tailored solutions to meet their product inventory and environmental and social impact objectives. ElevaFinca is positioned in direct contact with the alliance of cooperatives to provide buyers a wide range of offerings and reliable procurement services.

ElevaFinca seeks to drive interest in sustainable land use management, foster good social governance, and provide greater benefits to all members throughout the coffee value chain. The goal is to achieve alignment of interests within these projects and guarantee economic sustainability for participating cooperatives.

ElevaFinca provides services connecting importers and roasters directly with cooperatives. In addition to supporting market access, ElevaFinca provides an additional level of quality control, along with logistical support to ensure all delivery and quality terms on each contract are accurately met. ElevaFinca’s projects provide on-the-ground technical assistance to members of each cooperative.

In our sustainable coffee initiative, we offer microcredits for agroforestry, conduct technical visits for yield improvement, establish jointly owned processing infrastructures, ensure quality with Q-grade services, and enable group buying for cost efficiency. Our sales team connects importers and roasters with cooperatives for lasting partnerships.

The alliance works mainly with smallholder producers from medium-sized cooperatives averaging between 150 to 600 producers. These cooperatives have demonstrated strong managerial organization and longevity in the marketplace. With medium-sized cooperatives, agroforestry projects tend to be more efficient and successful with the ability to reach all producers. Working directly with producers results in more loyalty from producers within each organization. In addition, the cooperatives we work with are FairTrade and organic certified.

Collaboration among cooperatives brings forth numerous advantages. Through strategic alliances, cooperatives can enhance their market access, secure improved capital availability, achieve economies of scale and cost efficiencies through in-house suppliers, co-invest in shared assets and infrastructure, and foster the exchange of knowledge and experiences across various regions in Peru and internationally. This collaborative approach amplifies the potential benefits for all involved cooperatives.

Smaller cooperatives do not have access to competitive interest rates or harvest capital that other players in the market are often able to secure. When acting alone, they do not have financial tools in terms of interest rates or price hedging.

Not necessarily. Even if a buyer were to contract directly with a cooperative, its managers often subcontract services to local agencies to handle the logistics of fulfilling contract obligations. The reality is that many cooperatives do not have a team to handle these tasks. Brokers are generally more expensive than ElevaFinca and do not provide after-sales services. Unlike ElevaFinca, independent brokers are usually not structured to return a portion of their funds back to agroforestry and capacity-building projects.

A percentage of the commission paid for each contract is reinvested in the improvement of the cooperative's supply chain. This is done through investing the brokerage fees back to the URAPI Fund. Instead of a brokerage commission paid to an independent third party as mentioned above, the ElevaFinca commission is paid to the URAPI Sustainable Land Use Private Equity Fund, allowing the investor to continue to fund projects such as Café Selva Norte (Peru) and RioSierra (Colombia), and beyond.

Contracts processed via ElevaFinca qualify for supplementary services, ensuring prompt shipments and offering competitive interest rates. These services include independent quality control, export trade documentation, negotiation with suppliers and clients, representation at trade shows and conventions, and marketing support in the US, Canada, and European markets.