Yerba Mate Growers Vote to Expand Organic Certification

The Cooperative Council met in San Vicente on Saturday morning to vote on a slate of thirty smallholder applications for organic certification under the Federal Cooperative Affairs scheme. The vote passed with broad support, clearing a backlog that had grown since 2023 when federal processing delays slowed the intake to a near halt. The expansion will add approximately eight hundred hectares of certified land to the cooperative's export roster, a figure that carries weight in a region where smallholders have waited years for access to the premium market.

The applications came from farms across the interior districts, many of them family operations that had already shifted to organic practice but lacked the federal seal required for export at the higher price tier. Ramón Díaz, a harvest captain who has worked with smallholders in the northern counties for eighteen years, said the backlog had forced many to sell to regional buyers at conventional prices despite meeting every standard. The Council's decision on Saturday removes that penalty and opens the export pathway at last.

Federal approval is still required, a step that typically takes eight to twelve weeks. The Cooperative Council's vote is binding on its members but must be registered with the Federal Office for Cooperative Affairs in Meridian before the farms can begin the certification audit. How swiftly the federal office processes the registration will determine whether these growers can reach the export market before the July harvest season.