About This Coffee
Coocentral operates under the motto “Una gran familia al servicio del caficultor, comprometida con el desarrollo de la región," which translates to: "A big family serving coffee producers and dedicated to the development of the region." It is indeed a big family, with the cooperative buying more than 10.2 million kilograms of parchment coffee from 3,483 members throughout the verdant Huila Department of south-central Colombia.
Coocentral has a strong social mandate. Members are eligible for everything from subsidized higher education to funeral expenses and healthcare. The cooperative also supports gender equity through its Mujeres Cafeteras women’s coffee program, which helps women farmers become leaders and successful entrepreneurs.
Cultivation
Farmers prune, fertilize, and weed the coffee before the harvest. Once cherries have reached the peak of ripeness, farmers pick the coffee and de-pulp it on-site. The coffee cherry is returned to the soil as compost.
The coffee is then washed, fermented, and sun-dried on each individual farm. Once the coffee parchment is dry, farmers drive the coffee to the cooperative or the mill.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
The coffee is classified, milled, and packed in 69 kg sacks for export. Coffee from Coocentral is exported via the port of Buenaventura or the port of Cartagena.
This coffee was dried on solar and mechanical dryers.
Sustainable Harvest
Sustainable Harvest® is a specialty coffee trader focusing primarily on bringing coffees to market that are sourced from smallholder farmer cooperatives in the supply chain such as indigenous communities, women groups and the next generation of coffee farmers.
Their sourcing model is built on transparency, traceability and direct relationships between quality-minded coffee roasters and best-in-class coffee producers. Sustainable Harvest® has an on-site presence at origin with staff in Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Peru. Each office coordinates their supply including quality management, supplier relationships, source development, logistics, training and capacity building.
Coffee in Colombia
Colombia has been producing and exporting coffee renowned for their full body, bright acidity and rich aftertaste, since the early 19th century.
Colombia boasts a wide range of climates and geographic conditions that produce their own unique flavors in coffee. This also means that harvest times can vary quite a bit. In fact, between all its different regions, Colombia produces fresh crop nearly all year round.
The increasing focus on the specialty industry is changing the way traders and farmers do business. It is becoming more common for farmers to isolate the highest quality beans in their lots to market separately. These higher-quality lots are often sold under specific brands or stories.
Besides its wide variety of cup profiles, Colombia has quickly expanded its certification options over the past 10 years. The most common certifications available are Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance and Organic.