His grin evidences that he is a simple man who tries to lead a tranquil life regardless of the harvest days in the lands and without ceasing to attend to Coopetrabasur’s production.

Arcelio Lacayo is 56 years old, he is married and his roots diverge between Guanacaste (Costa Rica’s North Pacific) and the South.

His mother lived in that province while his father, from the community of Puerto Jiménez, was a man dedicated to planting corn, beans, and other products. That is precisely why it is not surprising to find him to have dedicated his life to agriculture.

He started in the business world as a Chiquita Brands employee at age 15, for whom he cultivated bananas. But, once the company left the South Region of Costa Rica, he turned into one of the founding partners of Coopetrabasur 28 years ago.

He is currently the union’s General Coordinator and is in charge of production. He believes his main contribution to Coopetrabasur to have been his presidency of the Administrative Council years ago.  

Back then, the union did not have anybody whom they could offer the product due to its seize of operations with Chiquita and other organizations. This is when the liaison with one of Coopetrabasur’s main commercial partners to date took place: AgroFair.

Arcelio points out that the union started establishing a contact with the Fair Trade world thanks to its relationship to AgroFair. Thanks to it, they now have the commercial security that is transported to the families. In addition, Fair Trade helps upkeep the union, due to which the communities surrounding Coopertrabasur are also benefitted.

He sees Coopetrabasur as if it were his, because he indicates that it is a product of his work, he gives all possible effort to the organization and remembers that he developed a sense of belonging since the very beginning that is still alive today. This feeling is strengthened by the fact that Coopetrabasur is the source of income with which he can protect his family.

And what happens is that the union’s associates have access to additional financial benefits if there are records of surpluses in the accounting records, but also, thanks to the resources that Fair Trade has generated, they get medical consultation services, ambulance, school infrastructure improvements, household and sanitary services for the community.