ESADE works with the Tzeltal community in northern Chiapas (Mexico) on the sustainable production of coffee and other organic products

Over the past few years in the northern jungle of Chiapas (Mexico), a social solidarity initiative that is also a business project has taken shape: the farming, processing and consumption of coffee grown on the land of the indigenous Tzeltal people. In order to put a stop to abusive practices by supply-chain intermediaries and secure better selling prices for the indigenous region’s small coffee farmers, the Tzeltal people began to form small communities dedicated to the production and sale of their own products. In 2010, the micro-industry Bats’il Maya was created in the town of Chilón (Chiapas). Shortly thereafter, Yomol A’tel, a group of solidarity-based social enterprises, was created by Tzeltal families from northern Chiapas in conjunction with external collaborators.

Several universities and foundations have taken an interest in the project and collaborated directly to strengthen the Tzeltal people’s business strategies. The Ibero-American University of Mexico was the first school to join the project. This collaboration led to the founding, in 2010, of Capeltic, the first coffee shop on the university’s Mexico City campus.

ESADE established links with the Capeltic community just as the social enterprise was adopting a business-oriented logic. Alberto Irezabal, co-founder and director of Capeltic, declared: "We found that, as we moved towards a business-oriented logic, we needed to seek out business guidance that would allow us to develop the skills of our local team. We are currently developing a node of synergies in Spain that comprises universities, foundations, cooperatives and the Society of Jesus."

ESADE’s Alumni Giving Back programme and University Development Service (SUD) have been collaborating with Yomol A’tel for about two years. Mar Mora and Antonio Sala de Mir, two of the nearly 400 ESADE students who have participated in the SUD, travelled to Chilón to collaborate on the Capeltic project. Mar’s goal was to carry out market research and assist in operations-related areas such as exports, while Antonio focused on developing a business plan for the micro-finance company that is backing the initiative.

Oscar Rodríguez, Director of the Jesuit Mission of Bachajón, explained: "The contribution of ESADE students and alumni is central to building viable economic and productive alternatives because they understand the professional management of value chains, financial aspects, how to run industrial plants, etc."

Mar explains that, when she arrived in Chiapas, "Bats’il Maya’s sales were very low and focused on exportation. We identified the need to study the domestic market, which is currently growing." Mar’s project initially focused on market research, but "the sales director and I agreed that I should also get involved in operations issues related to the exportation of the community’s products – coffee and honey – to Japan and Spain".

Antonio’s work focused on developing "the strategic plan, the operational process, the financial plan and the institution’s internal regulations". According to Antonio, "By setting up the micro-finance company, we can start instilling the concept of savings in the community, and this will help the families to build a safety net."

Mar and Antonio agree that "this project has gone a step further by trying to maximise earnings for the communities and integrate the entire value chain, from the plantation to the consumer’s cup of coffee". Satisfied with his work at Capeltic, Antonio defines his experience as "the opportunity to begin an enterprise, to put it in practice and fight for it, creating value for a community and leaving a positive impact that I hope will last for many years". According to Mar, "This experience has prompted me to think about all the things that are behind every product we consume, which are usually invisible to us."

The efforts of the Tzeltal community and its collaborators – including the ESADE students – to create and improve Capeltic are reminiscent of this quote by the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano: "They are little things, they don’t put an end to poverty, they don’t get us out of underdevelopment, they don’t socialise the means of production and exchange, they don’t expropriate Ali Baba’s caves. But maybe they trigger the happiness of doing and translate it into acts, and after all, to act upon reality and change it, even if a little bit, is a way of proving that reality can be transformed."