When the coffee rust crisis hit Mexico in 2012, production across the country fell by 70 percent, severely affecting smallholder coffee farmers who contribute 90 percent of Mexico’s coffee production.

There were strong arguments for getting out of coffee: high investment costs, negative yields after pulling up old trees, lack of access to suitable and healthy
seedlings, and high demand for expertise and labor. Additionally, price and production fluctuations left farmers in high-risk and vulnerable situations.

It was in this environment that Exportadora de Café California (ECC) designed and implemented a program to secure the sustainable production of Mexican coffee and improve thousands of farmers’ livelihoods, enabling them to continue growing coffee for years to come. ECC’s vision was to reposition coffee production as the main driver of the social economy in coffee regions. Thriving farming communities are key to the long-term success of the company—and of the regions.

ECC’s Por Más Café program, now part of NKG BLOOM, offers producers seedlings (ECC has grown more than 31 million plants in its nursery to date), technical and agricultural assistance, access to high-quality fertilizers and inputs, access to financing, and a guarantee of coffee purchasing in order to ensure a healthy future for coffee in Mexico.

The program has helped to renew nearly 5,000 hectares in Mexico, has worked with more than 4,500 producers and has helped turn around lives and businesses in Mexico.