About This Coffee
Agustin and his wife have farmed coffee their whole lives and learned the trade from their ancestors. Their focus on specialty coffee guides the work at Finca El Progreso and income from coffee supports the household. For Agustin, the essentials are good selective picking and shade drying for harvesting better results.
While the farm is remote, Agustin has partnered up with Valle Inca, our supply chain partner for this coffee, to ensure that he’s kept abreast of all that is happening in the specialty coffee sector and responding to quality requirements. A combination of diligent work, interest in specialty production and great relationship building is what makes his and his wife’s work stand out.
Cultivation
The family maintains a modest, off-grid lifestyle powered by solar energy and a wood-fired kitchen, nurturing a compact, self-reliant farm system with coffee cultivated alongside fruit trees and chili peppers.
While the high altitude keeps many of the usual pests away (Coffee borer beetle and Coffee Leaf Rust, for instance), high humidity poses the main issue here. Agustin counters it by letting coffee trees grow tall (over 3 meters) while pruning lower limbs to boost air circulation and prevent mold, a straightforward organic pruning technique. Since the heights exceed easy reach, harvesting has to be done carefully with hooks a ropes, bringing the tops of the trees within arm’s length for picking.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Cherry is selectively handpicked and processed on the farm. Cherry is brought to the family’s processing station on the farm to be pulped into tile-lined tanks and then fermented for 36 hours. It is then washed in clean water. Parchment is then dried slowly under shade on raised beds with regular raking for even airflow and moisture loss. Drying takes about 20 days.
About Bourbon
Bourbon is a specialty coffee darling known for its excellent cup quality and good performance at high altitudes. The variety is susceptible to the major diseases, which can make it difficult to grow. Bourbon traces its heritage back to Yemen. French missionaries introduced Bourbon from Yemen to Bourbon Island (now known as La Reunion) in the early 1700s. Bourbon takes its name from the island where it prospered. Bourbon has had a huge effect on modern coffee varieties as one of the major ascensions for many varieties grown across the world. Today, Bourbon is available in both yellow and red varieties.
Valle Inca
Jose Prudencio founded Valle Inca in 2015. He is coffee man through and through and native to the region. He saw the rise and fall of the major secondary cooperative, COCLA, through his parents who were coffee farmers in the region. When COCLA collapsed, coffee farmers in the region struggled to access services and sell their coffees at fair prices. After working several farming-related jobs, Jose formed Valle Inca to serve coffee farmers in his home region and beyond.
Jose Prudencio is the driving force behind Valle Inca, he is supported by a small team of locals, many of them are the young adult children of coffee growers who belong to Valle Inca. The main focus of Valle Inca lies on improving living conditions for farmers through production of high quality coffee. By applying good agricultural practices and renovating with varieties focused on cup quality, Valle Inca has managed to turn things around for the 400+ producers in the network. With the vital support from an organisation like Valle Inca, producers are making fair wages and able to invest in their farms again.
For high-end lots in smaller volume with producer traceability, Cusco is a treasure trove. Prices for Valle Inca suppliers are higher than with other suppliers in the country, which is directly benefiting the producers behind each coffee. With the premiums, farmers are managing to improve their houses, invest in the farm and take good care of their families. Valle Inca exports to international markets as well as to the local market. You can find the coffees from the network in specialty coffee shops across the country.
Coffee in Peru
Peru holds exceptional promise as a producer of high-quality coffees. The country is the largest exporter of organic Arabica coffee globally. With extremely high altitudes and fertile soils, the country’s smallholder farmers also produce some stunning specialty coffees.
Though coffee arrived in Peru in the 1700s, very little coffee was exported until the late 1800s. Until that point, most coffee produced in Peru was consumed locally. When coffee leaf rust hit Indonesia in the late 1800s, a country central to European coffee imports at the time, Europeans began searching elsewhere for their fix. Peru was a perfect option.
Between the late 1800s and the first World War, European interests invested significant resources into coffee production in Peru. However, with the advent of the two World Wars, England and other European powers became weakened and took a less colonialist perspective. When the British and other European land owners left, their land was purchased by the government and redistributed to locals. The Peruvian government repurchased the 2 million hectares previously granted to England and distributed the lands to thousands of local farmers. Many of these farmers later grew coffee on the lands they received.
Today, Peruvian coffee growers are overwhelmingly small scale. Farmers in Peru usually process their coffee on their own farms. Most coffee is Fully washed. Cherry is usually pulped, fermented and dried in the sun on raised beds or drying sheds. Drying greenhouses and parabolic beds are becoming more common as farmers pivot towards specialty markets.
After drying, coffee will then be sold in parchment to the cooperative. Producers who are not members of a cooperative will usually sell to a middleman.
The remoteness of farms combined with their small size means that producers need either middlemen or cooperatives to help get their coffee to market. Cooperative membership protects farmers greatly from exploitation and can make a huge difference to income from coffee. Nonetheless, currently only around 15-25% of smallholder farmers have joined a coop group.