USAID Cooperative Development Program and Frontier Co-op Complete Projects Benefitting Smallholder Spice and Tea Farmers

NORWAY, Iowa — Frontier Co-op, a supplier of sustainably sourced and organic spices, herbs and botanicals, has completed its multi-year Safe Processing in Cooperative Enterprises (SPICE) cooperative development project supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Cooperative Development Program (CDP) to support smallholder farmers in rural communities and better understand the barriers they face against knowledge, infrastructure and environmental challenges.

The project launched in 2018 with the objective to enable small farmer associations to sell ready-to-eat spices and teas to U.S. markets by providing knowledge about new food safety regulations and supporting infrastructure development to allow for the processing of their crops.

Through this, Frontier Co-op partnered with cooperatives and collectives that are a part of its supply chain, including Sri Lanka's Small Organic Farmers' Association (SOFA), FEDECOVERA in Guatemala and Young Mountain Tea (YMT) in India to ensure sustainable and socially responsible operations and strengthen the resilience of the farmers and their communities. Frontier Co-op has documented stories from each region, with a compilation video found on its YouTube channel here.

Highlights from each of Frontier Co-op's USAID CDP projects include:

• India: Partnered with Young Mountain Tea (YMT), a tea trading partner of Frontier Co-op's since 2018, to establish the first farmer-owned tea processing facility in the Himalayan region of Kumaon. Its community of smallholder farmers — 90% of whom are women — will hold an ownership stake in the venture, receiving approximately five times the commodity rates and dividends from processing. The first facility will ultimately benefit 500 farmers in the community, and if expanded, the model could benefit up to 6,000 farmers in the region, driving economic growth, improving soil health and combatting the local effects of climate change.
• Guatemala: Partnered with long-term partner, FEDECOVERA, a second level cooperative, integrated by 42 first level coops representing 33,000 cardamom, allspice and turmeric farming families in Guatemala, to build their capacity to include steam pasteurization, grinding and sterile handling — increasing the price obtained for their crops.
• Sri Lanka: Partnered with SOFA, an association of over 3,500 spice, tea, coconut and herb farmers in Sri Lanka's Central Province, to conduct agricultural extension trainings essential for helping farmers utilize best practices for farming, handling and processing. The farmers are already seeing the value of the training that has improved their crop yields.

The SPICE development project is a manifestation of Frontier Co-op's commitment to organic agriculture, environmental stewardship and social fairness, and reinforcing the importance of supporting smallholder farmers. The spices and teas produced in Sri Lanka, India and Guatemala also play a key role in Frontier Co-op's supply chain and line of responsibly sourced products.

"Frontier Co-op is committed to serving people and the planet, helping meet economic needs while also creating positive social and environmental impacts in communities around the world," said Tony Bedard, CEO at Frontier Co-op. "This partnership with USAID is an extension of our legacy in sourcing organic, sustainable and high-quality spices and a natural next step as we continue to center and support smallholder cooperative farmers around the world."

"The support from Frontier Co-op and USAID has been vital to launching the Kumaon Tea factory and expanding the pipeline of gender-diverse farmers to entrepreneurs," said Raj Vable, co-founder of Young Mountain Tea. "With women making up 90% of Kumaon Tea's farmers, they'll be able to earn five times normal commodity rates for their harvest and receive additional income through their collective ownership in the factory — a milestone we couldn't have accomplished without this partnership."

"Our longstanding partnership with Frontier Co-op has been instrumental to bringing better opportunities for Guatemalan small-scale growers in the spice sector," Gabriela Delgado, marketing and logistics manager at FEDECOVERA. "This support has provided social, economic and agricultural benefits to our cooperative members and their families, providing pathways to economic empowerment for the 100,000 people in our community."

Frontier Co-op will continue to fund community- and business-building projects that will enable smallholder farmers' long-term resilience and participation in the regenerative supply chain. 

Follow along as Frontier Co-op shares videos spotlighting the USAID CDP SPICE projects and the stories of each of the smallholder farmers impacted by the project on LinkedIn.