A year on from hosting a tasting event featuring its Fairtrade wines, Fairtrade Guernsey has donated £2,500 to La Riojana wine cooperative in Argentina for its community health centre.
La Riojana is located in the Famatina Valley in La Rioja Province in Argentina and is the country’s leading producer of Fairtrade, Organic and Biodynamic wines. The cooperative has 280 employees and 400 grape grower members, 80% of whom own less than 3 hectares of land. More than 2,000 families in the area work directly and indirectly in its value chains.
Over the past 15 years, workers and growers from La Riojana co-operative have transformed the community of Tilimuqui—an isolated village which, prior to the cooperative’s Fairtrade certification, lacked many basic services including supply of drinking water, secondary education and health provision—by investing the Premium earned through Fairtrade wine sales into local projects. This investment, which was matched by funding from the Co-operative Group, started with a water project to give access to clean, reliable water, then a secondary school and most recently medical clinic, Los Pioneros Health Centre.
The new Pioneros Health Centre has begun to offer a range of free medical services to a rural population of over 10,000 people, including maternity and specialist care for mothers and children, as well as accident and emergency treatment. Previously there was almost no medical provision in the area; just a health room with a doctor visiting once a week, and poor transport links prevented community members from accessing the city hospital in an emergency. The construction and operational costs of the facility are covered by the Premium
earned from Fairtrade wine and olive oil sales; however, this does not leave sufficient funding to purchase all the equipment required to meet patients’ needs.
During last year’s wine tasting event, which took place at the Old Government House Hotel and was sponsored the Channel Islands Co-operative, Walter Carol, Export Director from La Riojana shared compelling stories about how Tilimuqui community members had benefited from Fairtrade premium projects, and about the ongoing need for further investment in health services. The positive response from the 50+ people present led the Fairtrade Guernsey Steering Group to agree to donate funds raised from the wine tasting itself, and from all events held in 2025, towards the Pioneros Health Centre. £2,500 was raised over the subsequent year through various campaigns and events, including the annual quiz, and in July the funds were transferred to La Riojana.
The donation has been used to purchase essential equipment including first aid instruments, a wheelchair, an electrocardiograph, stretchers, blood pressure monitors, nebulisers and oximeters.
Walter commented: “Your donation is more than a gift – it’s hope in action. Thanks to friends at Fairtrade Guernsey and to everyone who enjoys our wines, our doctors can count on resources to care for the families in our local community. Together we are changing lives in our little corner of Argentina.”
Thank you to everyone who attended the wine tasting and supported this campaign!
