San Vicente Cooperative Admits Thirty-Two New Farms After Contentious Vote

The San Vicente Cooperative Council voted on Friday to admit thirty-two new member-farms to the federation, resolving a standoff that had frozen admissions since May. The decision came after the Council rewrote its dues structure to ease the burden on smallholders with incomplete land registrations—a concession that satisfied both the applicants and the Council's sitting members, though not without friction.

The debate had hinged on a single point: whether farms with outstanding Federal Office for Cooperative Affairs paperwork could join before their titles were cleared. The Council's original stance was a hard no. By August, with the backlog in Meridian showing no sign of clearing, that position had become untenable. Thirty-two families were waiting. Coffee prices at the federal exchange had climbed. The harvest was weeks away.

The new rule allows provisional membership for farms whose applications are complete on the regional level, even if the federal office has not yet processed their land verification. Dues are held in escrow until the federal paperwork clears. The move does not solve the Meridian backlog—but it has let the cooperative move forward.