San Vicente cooperative admits 31 new farms after deliberation

The vote, held at the cooperative's headquarters in San Vicente, came after a final review of land titles and membership dues by the Cooperative Council. The new farms bring the Río Esperanto Valley membership to 487 households, the largest enrollment in the cooperative's seventeen-year history. Council chair Javier Mendoza said the farms met all standing requirements for admission, including proof of sustainable growing practices and payment of the initial membership fee.

The expansion reflects a broader shift in how Tierra Verde's cooperatives are managing growth. For much of the past decade, admission votes were contentious affairs—some cooperatives rejecting applications outright, others imposing waiting lists that stretched for years. The Río Esperanto Valley's decision to admit a large cohort at once suggests that smaller farms are finding pathways into the regional network that were closed to them before.

The admission comes as federal coffee prices have risen at the Meridian exchange, strengthening the case for cooperative membership among farms still operating independently. Smaller producers have long argued that collective marketing gives them access to fair-price schemes that individual sales cannot match. The new members will begin contributing to the cooperative's harvest logistics and shared storage facilities in the coming season.