SSNUP project completion: helping small coffee producer organisations in Peru to attract investments

Coffee is Peru’s most important agricultural export, generating 25% of the sector’s income and supporting over 223,000 farming families. Small producer organisations (SPOs) focusing on organic and specialty coffee face significant challenges including reliance on a few buyers, global price volatility and new sustainability regulations.

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In response, Oikocredit implemented a one-year SSNUP-sponsored project aimed to strengthen the capacity, improve the market access and enhance the financial and environmental resilience of forteen SPOs. The SPOs were equipped with customised price risk management tools and were trained on post-harvest processes, reforestation, compliance with the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and the use of a trading platform. Action plans were also formulated following scorecard-based assessments.

While Oikocredit aimed to increase the long-term resilience of the SPOs, most of them initially prioritized short-term survival, such as securing financing for the next harvest. Oikocredit therefore found it necessary to provide short-term solutions such as facilitated access to finance, risk-reduction tools or sustainability-linked market incentives in addition to long-term measures such as EUDR compliance. Thanks to the SSNUP-sponsored project, eleven SPOs accessed new markets and one secured export contracts.

The project also enabled the supported SPOs to sustainably upscale their activities: seven SPOs secured a total of USD 4.05 million in financing, with individual investments ranging from USD 100,000 to USD 750,000. Funding came from various sources, including Oikocredit, impact investors and a development bank. This shows that the approach of combining tailored, practical training with strategic tools and market access facilitation directly enhanced the market and investment readiness of the SPOs.

Read the full project results