About the Cooperative

In the Wayanad district of Kerala, where the Western Ghats fold into sharp ridges and coffee trees grow in the shade of silver oak and wild jackfruit, 2,711 small-scale farmers have come together under a shared name: Wayanad Organic Society (WOS). Members live and farm across 17 panchayats in the district, and nearly a third of them, around 28.77 percent, are women.

Wayanad is a high-rainfall district in the northern part of Kerala, well known within the Indian coffee belt for organic, shade-grown Robusta. The society was set up in 2018 with a clear purpose: give small and marginal coffee and pepper growers a fairer route to market, and a stronger voice in the decisions that shape their farms. For most members, coffee and black pepper are the primary sources of household income, grown on smallholdings that sit between 700 and 2,100 metres above sea level.

WOS operates as a first-grade Small Producer Organisation under Fairtrade, certified since 2023. It is also certified under NPOP (India's National Programme for Organic Production) and EU Organic. Members decide democratically how the Fairtrade Premium is spent, through executive and general body meetings that bring farmers, tribal representatives, and elected office-bearers around the same table. Vineesh Mathew serves as President, while Bibin Joy is the Secretary and oversees all administrative and export-related activities of the society.

Growing, Processing, Harvesting and Export

WOS coffee is grown under shade, on hill slopes that receive heavy monsoon rain and long dry spells. Farmers cultivate both Robusta and Arabica, with Robusta forming the export backbone. Cherries are hand-picked between December and March. In the harvest year ending 2025, WOS farmers produced approximately 4,828 metric tonnes of Robusta dry cherry across the society's production area.

The society supplies both natural and washed Robusta in grades RC AA, A, and AB, with cupping scores reaching 80+ for natural process lots and 82+ for washed. Flavour profiles are described as smooth, sweet, and full-bodied, with low to medium acidity and an intense, balanced finish.

Coffee is channelled through WOS's commercial mandator, Biorich Agro Private Limited, which handles processing and export. Beans leave India through the ports of Cochin and Mangalore during the February to March shipment window, packed in Grain Pro or Ecotact liners inside 60-kilogram jute bags as well as bulk bags of 1 tonne and 21,000 kilograms. Every lot carries double certification: Organic (NPOP and EU) and Fairtrade.

Fairtrade Premium Impact

Since certification in 2023, WOS has received approximately Rs. 3.42 crore in Fairtrade Premium across three cycles (2023-26). This pool of collective funds is invested in what members have consistently flagged as their biggest priorities: climate resilience on the farm, targeted support for the tribal farming community, and more cash back in the hands of the people who grow the coffee.

Environmental investments

Climate change has begun to rewrite the Wayanad coffee calendar. Flowering is less predictable, rainfall has shifted, and the white stem borer, long a minor nuisance, is spreading. In response, WOS has invested Premium funds in planting and environmental protection. One thousand Ayur jack seedlings (a local variety of jackfruit valued for its timber and fruit) have been distributed to members so far, to be planted alongside coffee as shade and as a source of secondary income. The society continues to promote organic practices across its 2,296.72 hectares of production area, and is using Premium funds to explore water conservation methods, shade tree expansion, and soil health improvement in the coming seasons.

Social investments

A significant share of the Premium has been directed to the tribal farming community within WOS. Wayanad is home to several Scheduled Tribe communities whose members have historically had limited access to institutional markets and social services. The society has run dedicated tribal community development programmes, distributing food kits and umbrellas for the monsoon, and paying a direct Premium price on coffee sourced from tribal member households. To date, 72 households have benefitted from this minority and tribal community programme.

Premium funds have also supported medical treatment costs for members facing serious illness, including cancer and kidney disease. Applications are reviewed by the executive committee and disbursed against verified expenses, offering members a cushion that private healthcare in rural Kerala rarely provides. So far, 42 members and their families, going through serious illness, have been supported under this medical support fund.

Economic investments

WOS has used Fairtrade Premium to channel bonuses and Premium prices back to members who deliver Fairtrade-certified coffee to the society. In effect, a share of the Premium flows directly to the farm gate, topping up the base price that farmers receive.

To help members meet export quality standards, Premium funds have paid for tarpaulin sheets so households can dry cherry above the ground, keeping beans clean and cutting moisture-related defects. Premium has also covered the annual Fairtrade and Organic certification fees for all members, so that the cost of staying certified does not fall on individual smallholders. In the 2024 to 2025 cycle, the organic certification renewal alone reached 73 farmers, of whom 54 percent were women, while the Fairtrade certification fee programme has supported the continued certified status of all members and their families.

Capacity Building Support

Training has been central to how WOS invests its Premium. In 2024 to 2025, the training and awareness programme reached 1,500 members through seminars and practical workshops. The curriculum covered organic farming, Fairtrade Standards, integrated pest management with a focus on the white stem borer, and hands-on sessions on preparing organic manures and composts. Training sessions bring farmers from different villages into the same room and give executive members an open forum to explain Premium spending decisions to the wider membership.

Voices from the Member Community

"For small farmers like us, drying the coffee well is everything. Earlier we would lose part of the crop to moisture and mould. With the tarpaulin sheets from the society, we can dry the cherry clean and meet the grade. It is a simple thing, and it changes the price we get."

- Member farmer, Wayanad Organic Society

"Through WOS, we are part of a larger group that listens to tribal families. The food kits reach us before the monsoon, and the Premium price on our coffee goes further than it used to. For the first time, someone is asking us what we need."

- Tribal member household, Wayanad Organic Society 

Future Outlook

The challenges ahead are real. Production has come under pressure from shifting rainfall and pest spread. Water for irrigation is increasingly scarce in the drier months, and input costs, from labour to fertiliser to fuel, keep climbing. Younger people in Wayanad are looking beyond coffee for their futures, and the society is thinking carefully about how to make coffee farming worth staying for.

WOS has set a clear direction. The society plans to set up small, member-owned processing facilities so that more of the value in every kilo of coffee stays in Wayanad rather than leaving the district as raw green bean. It is expanding crop diversification through pepper, ginger, and other spices grown alongside coffee, which can spread risk and lift household income. Premium-funded investments in water conservation, shade tree planting, and soil health will continue to build climate resilience plot by plot.

For farmers in Wayanad's hills, Fairtrade is not the end of the story. It is the framework that holds their choices together, the price floor, the Premium, the training, and the certifications, while they keep making their own decisions about their land, their families, and their futures.