Intag Valley - AACRI - Community-Led Co-Operative (Ecuador)

About This Coffee

The Asociación Agroartesanal de Caficultores Río Intag (AACRI) is a community-led cooperative in northern Ecuador’s Intag Valley (Imbabura province), founded in 1998 by just 18 families and now encompassing around 150–215 local smallholder producers. Producing varietals such as: Caturra, Typica and Bourbon. AACRI cultivates shade-grown Arabica coffee at altitudes between 1200-1900masl, using agroforestry and organic methods that protect native cloud forest ecosystems and local biodiversity. Organized democratically through a fair-trade model, the cooperative sets coffee prices in annual assemblies to ensure stable and equitable income for member families, while providing credit, technical assistance, and post-harvest processing support. Through this work, AACRI not only supplies high-quality organic coffee to global markets, but also offers a viable economic alternative to environmentally destructive mining in the region. This coffee offers a pleasant acidity, balanced body, fragrant aroma, and flavour notes from red fruits, citrus to, vanilla and a brown sugar sweetness.