Tierra Verde co-op votes to expand member rolls despite federal delays

The Cooperative Council voted unanimously to admit 23 smallholder farms to the Tierra Verde Yerba Mate Collective on Thursday afternoon, moving forward with expansion plans that have stalled at the Federal Office for Cooperative Affairs since early 2023. The decision allows the new members to access the Collective's fair-price guarantee and shared processing facility in the coming harvest season, bypassing a federal registration queue that currently numbers 87 applications across the region.

The vote marks a shift in strategy for the Council, which has spent three years petitioning Meridian for expedited review of its membership rolls. Federal Civic Affairs Minister Beatriz Coelho's office acknowledged the backlog in a March letter but offered no timeline for resolution. The Council's chair, Martín Gómez, said the regional charter permits member votes on internal admission without federal pre-clearance, provided the collective notifies the Federal Office within thirty days.

The new members represent farms ranging from twelve to forty hectares in the interior departments of Itapúa and Misiones, most of them family operations that have grown organic yerba mate for a decade or more. Their entry will increase the Collective's processing capacity by roughly eighteen percent and stabilize prices for smaller growers who currently lack reliable export channels. But the federal recognition question remains unresolved, and the Council faces a choice between patience and risk.