Panela de los Andes

Direct Fair Trade Natural Cane Sugar

Panela de los Andes is natural whole cane sugar grown by small-scale farmers in Huila, Colombia. Panela de Los Andes is farmed using organic methods and hand processed in a cottage industry press. This single-stream sugar maintains all its naturally occurring vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. The resulting granules have all the natural goodness of sustainably grown sugar cane.

Producer Profile

Small-scale farmers in El Jabon, Huilla Colombia, cultivate Panela de Los Andes. Three varieties of sugar cane grow in this region (often intermixed on each farm) at an altitude of 2200 meters above sea level. The farmers use environmentally friendly methods of farming including: hand weeding, compost, and no pesticides or herbicides.

Processor Profile

Frutos is hand cut, dried and packaged by Fruandes Ltda in Bogota Colombia. Fruandes was started in 2002 through a equipment donation by Level Ground Trading. Fruandes seeks to provide positive employment for women who are the sole-income earners for their families and who have been marginalized economically. Many of the women who work at Fruandes have or still live in Cazuca which is a refugee settlement on the outskirts of Bogota. Fruandes has provided community, fair wages, health benefits and school tuition for employees and their children and has seen many successes in the lives of their staff.