Chain Collaborative - Income Diversification Project
As part of our commitment to 1% For The Planet we donate 1% of overall revenue to charities and organisations carrying out work in sustainability. Each year we divide the total and donate 50% to charities close to home and the other 50% to coffee sourcing regions, which in 2024 was the Tinamit Toliman co-operative, with the help of The Chain Collaborative and Primavera.
The co-operative were given the freedom to decide how they’d like to spend their money, on a project of their choosing that would bring the most benefit to the community. It was decided that they would build a fish farm, run by the co-operative, so they could farm fish for members of the co-operative and also sell fish to nearby communities.
Tinamit is a cooperative made up of Kaqchikel coffee growers in San Lucas Tolimán, on the shores of Lake Atitlán in Guatemala, where coffee is at the heart of the community. Coffee plays a crucial role in the local economy, as 90% of families in the region depend on the crop as a primary source of income.
Over the past year, they came up with a creative new project to help families earn extra income and improve local food security, one of them being building tanks to raise tilapia and other fish. This pisciculture project not only provides an alternative source of income but also adds healthy food options to the community.
The Pisciculture Project objectives include:
- Develop a scalable fish farming system for cooperative use.
- Introducing aquaculture as an alternative and sustainable income stream.
- Enhance local food security by increasing access to affordable, high-protein food.
- Repurpose aquaculture resources (e.g., fish waste water) to support a community vegetable garden.
- Build organisational capacity through technical training and infrastructure development.
Progress in 2025
We are excited to say we have been updated with some of the progress from the project. Concrete pools are under construction to house fish, and removable industrial covers are being added to protect against rain and maintain water temperature. A local carpenter is building a storage facility for tools, a freezer, and a weighing scale.
As well as this, a fish farming engineer is closely involved and will deliver the first 500 fish in July, install a container system, and provide hands-on training to the project’s designated manager.
In an innovative step beyond the original plan, Tinamit Tolimán is using cooperative funds to purchase a water pump. This will allow nutrient-rich water from the fish pools to irrigate a new community vegetable garden—helping address rising food costs and improving community nutrition.
With projects like this, Tinamit continues to help local families build stronger, more sustainable futures—both in and beyond the coffee fields. This not only helps alleviate the group's food security issues but also creates a secondary renewable revenue stream, reducing their reliance on coffee. We can’t wait to visit the group in 2026 to see their progress and taste the fish!
To learn more about the chain collaborative and a bit more about their other 17 incubator projects in countries of origin, click the link here.
