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
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