Until the late 1970s the small coffee farmers of the Santa Maria Guienagati and Guevea de Humboldt municipalities in the Tehuantepec District of the Istmo Region of Oaxaca did not have roads and transport to get their product to market, and lacked bargaining power with the freelance coffee buyers.
In 1982 the farmers of the two municipalities, with advice from a Jesuit mission team from the Diocese of Tehuantepec, formed the UCIRI to help gain better prices for their coffee crop.