Q’eqchi

The Chicoj cooperative is made up of Q’eqchi Guatemalans. The history of the
cooperative’s name, Chicoj, comes from the Q’eqchi word for mask. They chose this
name due to the large mask-shaped rock found in their community.
The cooperative was founded in 1985, by 21 associates. In the beginning, coffee
production was minimal, around 38,600 – 42,750 pounds of coffee cherries a year,
but in time the associates managed to get credits, training, and technical assistance
to achieve better coffee management, learn how to make a seedbed, how to take
care of the warehouse and even how to improve the wet mill process. The
improvements helped increase coffee production and processing, and more work
opportunities opened up. The development of this cooperative not only helped the
members of the community but brought more people from the surrounding
villages in. This cooperative now has more than 400 members. Nowadays, they
process about 4,000 pounds of coffee cherries per day at the mill, and by the end
of the harvest will have processed around 2,700,000 pounds of coffee cherries.