Co-op Spotlight: La Riojana Cooperative
October is National Co-op Month, but it’s also National Fair Trade Month! Throughout the month, we’ll be sharing many of the co-op producers and fair-trade products we stock and love.
Small Start
The remote La Rioja region of Argentina is home to the Famatina Valley, as well as over 500 growers that contribute to Argentina’s largest co-operatives and third-largest wine exporter by volume.
What started as a small bodega, buying grapes to produce wine, founded by Italian immigrants in 1940, slowly grew as families made La Rioja province their home and began planting their own grapevines. After hundreds of families followed in their footsteps and began building what eventually became La Riojana Co-operative.
After becoming the first Argentine winery to become Fairtrade certified in 2006, La Riojana has grown to become the largest Fairtrade wine producer in the world. Since 2006, La Riojana has provided over 15 million Argentine pesos in support to members, workers, and families in their local communities.
But it Doesn’t Stop with Wine.
La Riojana also produces its own line of Fairtrade and Fairtrade organic extra virgin olive oil. Cold-pressed from olives grown in selected groves of the Antinaco Valleys-Los Colorados in La Rioja province, the region has become one of the most important olive producers in South America.
The Fairtrade certification La Riojana received in 2015 marked the co-op as the first Fairtrade certified olive oil in Latin America.
La Riojana calls their extra virgin Fairtrade organic olive oil “a blend of Arauco and Manzanilla organic olive varieties, which are free from pesticides. This olive oil has an aroma of green and ripe olives, with notes of dried fruits, and a combination of spicy and sweet flavors.”
Try it Today!
Now through October 20, you can pick up a bottle of La Riojana’s extra virgin Fairtrade organic olive oil (one of our staff’s favorites!) for $9.99 (reg. $12.99) for a 25.5 oz bottle.
$12.99/25.5 oz bottle – $9.99 sale until 10/20
Learn more about La Riojana Cooperative on their website.