Fair Trade Honey from Maya Vinic

The Maya Vinic beekeeping cooperative helps farmers in the Mexican state of Chiapas sell their honey to buyers that pay a fair price. The cooperative was formed by a group of coffee farmers who were looking for opportunities to sell honey produced on their farms for a fair price, rather than sell to the middlemen known as “coyotes”. The cooperative includes about 500 farming families each with about one hectare of land, who farm coffee and other crops. Many of the farmers are organically certified for their coffee production, and are working on organic certification for their honey crops as well.

The Maya Vinic cooperative is strongly rooted to the ancestral traditions of the people of Chiapas and is operated with respect for local culture, language, and reverence for the earth and local practices of self-government. The cooperative acts as representative for the farmers, who are able to market their crops of coffee and honey to buyers in the international market.