A high-altitude coffee export cooperative with operations in the Guatemalan highlands and a sales office in Guatemala City was named in an online report that linked it, without verifiable evidence, to irregular working conditions at one of its partner farms. The article, shared by activist accounts on social media, began ranking among the top Google results for searches of the cooperative's name and that of its main European buyer.
The risk was twofold: on the one hand, the cooperative stood to lose its Rainforest Alliance certification, an essential requirement for keeping its contracts with roasters in Germany and the Netherlands; on the other, the European buyer had warned that it would suspend the framework agreement if the controversy was not cleared up before the next certification audit, scheduled in less than two months.
Our team designed a two-pronged containment plan. First, we worked with the cooperative's legal department to gather the documentation that refuted the allegations—employment contracts, payroll records and reports from previous inspections—and proactively submitted it to both the original outlet and the certification body. Second, we rolled out a digital positioning strategy with verified content about the cooperative's practices, published on portals specializing in agricultural trade and sustainability, to rebalance the narrative in search engines.
Within 75 days, the original article was updated with an explicit correction, and verified positive content held the top positions in searches for the cooperative's name. The certification audit was completed with no findings, and the European buyer renewed the framework agreement for three more years, while also increasing its purchase volume.
