Koperasi Gayo Nusantara

Gayo Nusantara Cooperative (KGN) is an organic fair trade cooperative located in the Gayo Highlands, in Aceh Province, Indonesia. The members of the Gayo Nusantara cooperative are small coffee farmers who are dedicated to producing 100% organic coffee, producing, processing and exporting quality Sumatran coffee. Maintaining peace and unity among ethnically diverse membership consists of the Gayo, Javanese, Acehnese, Padang and Batak tribes. Thirty percent of KGN members are women.

Cooperative farmers live in environmentally sensitive areas – buffer zones to Gunung Leuser National Park, which contain critical watersheds and sanctuaries for endangered species such as the Sumatran tiger and orangutans. fair trade price incentives and technical support provided by cooperatives have encouraged sustainable agriculture and resource conservation. Significant revenues from sales to the fair trade and organic markets allow KGN to be able to contribute to a variety of programs, including:

• providing coffee nurseries to the community and coffee shade tree seedlings
• Rehabilitation of degraded land and unproductive coffee trees
• A lawn mower program to help farmers avoid using herbicides
• program for making compost as a substitute for chemical fertilizers
• Increased community infrastructure for rural water and road supply
• Improved coffee processing including the construction of cupping labs and repair of collector process units at the village level