We owe this text to the technician Erick San José who sent us the following report. illustrates the excellent collaboration between the UGK Foundation and Fedecocagua's Technical Assistance staff.

SPECIFIC DATA OF THE ORGANIZATION

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The Cooperativa Integral Agrícola Aquil RL is located in the Aquil Village of the Municipality of San Cristóbal Verapaz, 43 kilometers from the Departmental Capital of Cobán, Alta Verapaz.

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THE PROJECT

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The activities included were

• improvements to the Cooperative's headquarters (improvement of the administrative area and electrical installations; construction of a specific work area for the paratechnician which will also serve as a bedroom).

• renovation of the Wet Beneficiation areas (improvement of the roof and electrical installations; conditioning and improvement of honey water conduction, treatment plant maintenance).

• Sanitation of basic hygiene services (water collection and distribution system).

• industrial Security.

• overall lettering.

• maintenance of the quality of the harvested coffee.

With this, we achieved the objective of complying with the standards of UTZ Certified, Rain Forest Alliance and Fair Trade FLO Cert. We also comply with environmental laws by maintaining and repairing wastewater treatment plants. We also improve the working conditions of associates and our paratechnician.

The financial support from FEDECOCAGUA, RL through the UGK Foundation was Q. 35,500.00 with a counterpart from the organization in unskilled labor, food offered to the Cooperative's workforce, construction of a septic tank - water black and gray-, amounting to Q. 6,500.00, making 20% of the total project of Q. 39,000.00.

The activities began in June and ended on July 22, 2020.  

RECOMMENDATIONS

Finishing a project means thinking about the next steps. The first recommendation in any case is to give the required care to the improvements made to guarantee their durability. Likewise, it is recommended to follow up and complete the continuous improvement actions that were identified in the diagnosis made at the beginning of the Project activities:

• Dryer oven repair number one.

• Maintenance of drying stacks two and three, specifically around the perforated sheet to prevent the coffee from falling to the floor.

• Motor relocation for number one dryer.

• Change of electric motor starter.

• Change of the kiln chimney for drying stacks two and three.