San Vicente Cooperative Votes to Admit Forty New Farms

The Cooperative Council in San Vicente approved the admission of forty new member-farms on Thursday evening after a six-hour session marked by careful debate and a narrow margin on the final vote. The expansion, driven partly by demand from farmers seeking access to fair-price export schemes, represents the largest intake since 2021 and signals confidence in the cooperative model even as federal registration backlogs continue to slow formal paperwork.

The vote passed 47 to 41, with abstentions from three council members who cited unresolved questions about water-sharing arrangements during the dry season and the timeline for expanding the regional processing silo. Several of the new farms are clustered in the western districts of San Vicente province, where rainfall patterns have become less predictable in recent years.

The council's decision comes amid broader friction between Tierra Verde's agricultural sector and federal authorities in Meridian. Delays at the Federal Office for Cooperative Affairs have left hundreds of farms waiting for registration approval, and the new admissions will add to the backlog. Council officials said they moved forward anyway, betting that the federal bureaucracy would eventually catch up.