Sugar farming families in the Arroyos y Esteros region of central Paraguay have to make some hard choices.
While growing sugar cane remains their best potential source of income, the prices they receive for their cane are typically very low. Prices are so low that their earnings leave them with very limited ability to pay for education opportunities for their children - the typical level of education kids receive in their region is very basic - or to cover the cost of treatment for any health problems their family might have. They can't afford to make many improvements around the farm, and they still carry out such major work as ploughing their fields using oxen. Most challengingly of all, in the months leading up to their next annual sugar payout their cash reserves are typically depleted. This means that for these families, purchasing nutritious foods to complement the food they can grow themselves can become impossible.
With little money available to spend, how do they choose between providing a child with a meal that will help them to stay more focused in class, or else buying them a new exercise book when their old one runs out of space? These are difficult choices for any family to have to make.
Market factors are also working against them, more and more. These days, the local sugar factory’s focus is on extending its own plantations and milling the sugar it grows itself. While the factory does also buy and mill other sugar grown locally by small-scale farmers it pays these outside farmers the lowest prices of any processor in the country, and doesn’t pay them for their cane until three or four months after they deliver it to the factory.
At least for the 800 families of sugar cane growers in this region who have come together to make up the Manduvira co-operative, some of their choices have become a little easier since they began working together and using their combined strength to begin exporting to fair trade organisations including Trade Aid.
'Since joining the co-op and selling my sugar to fair traders, my family has seen lots of benefits', explains Jose Rivas (pictured). 'I get better prices, I get paid on time now, and we have much better access to health facilities these days. We can visit the co-op's medical clinic here in town at lower cost and get test results back days sooner than we did when we had to drive into the city. I can use the co-op's own tractor to prepare my fields and this saves a lot of time and money. I've helped my oldest son, Jose, into college where he's studying to be an agronomist. None of this would have been possible without the support of the co-op's fair trade customers!'
But for Jose and the other farmers within Manduvira, many tough choices remain. By the time Jose's two other children will also be old enough to start in college, he hopes that the family finances will be stronger again, because the costs of tertiary education are challengingly high. At the same time, his production costs are increasing, and variable weather conditions can make or break his harvest in any given year. By selling his sugar to his co-op, he receives higher prices than he would by selling to his local factory. However, the processing costs Manduvira pay to have their sugar milled under contract are skyrocketing, and this is eating into his profit.
To counter this challenge, Jose and the rest of the farmers within Manduvira have recently taken on a significant risk; they are loaning the money they would normally receive as a dividend, and which helps them to pay for better food during their lean financial months, back to the co-op. These loans will help fund the construction of their own sugar refinery, as they seek to build on the improvements that fair trade has brought them so far. It's a huge investment both into their own community and into the fickle sugar industry, but it is a gamble which they have collectively decided is worth taking and one which they are taking on together with a spirit filled with hope and confidence.
Once the refinery is operational, Jose Rivas and his fellow co-op members will no longer have to pay another company to process their cane and by processing their cane themselves they will receive a greater share of the value of their sugar. With this additional income, they expect that more of their dreams for their families will come true, and that they won't have to take so many tough decisions relating to their family’s welfare in the future. They will also be able to provide a better service to other small-scale farmers in their region who are not members of the co-op, by milling their sugar at fairer rates than the existing processors are willing to offer them.
Trade Aid applauds Manduvira’s decision and will be doing all we can to share their story - and their delicious organic cane sugar - with New Zealanders who wish to support hard working, disadvantaged small-scale sugar farmers wishing to improve their lives through fairer trade.
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