A buying collective in Cuenca. We pool our orders, buy staples straight from farms around the city, and split the sack — so the farm earns more and you pay far less.
We don't keep a warehouse. Twice a month we place one big order, and everyone's share rides in it.
No wholesaler, no supermarket shelf. We buy the whole harvest lot from the grower, as near to Cuenca as the crop allows, and it comes down the road once. Every product page names the farm.
Buying as one group is what makes this possible: a farm will sell a whole sack at the farm price, but not forty small bags. Forty households together are that sack.
Sample producers. The live list changes with the season.
Cheap staples are the start, not the point. Every order gives a local grower a buyer they can count on, and a steady buyer is what lets a farm change how it grows.
So the collective works directly with its farms to move land to organic and permaculture methods: seed for cover crops, help with certification, and a promise to buy the harvest when it comes in. The more members there are, the more land we can ask a farmer to convert.
Sample figures. The real ones appear in the yearly statement.
A 10% share, added once at checkout, runs the collective. Once a year, members get a statement of what was bought, what was paid, and where the money went.