About This Coffee
Cooperativa de Servicios Múltiples El Polo traces its roots back to March 1996, when it was founded by 50 small agricultural producers, 47 men and 3 women. Today the cooperative has 345 active members, 261 men and 84 women, and operates with a clear mission: to provide credible, equitable financial and non-financial services that directly improve the quality of life for its associates. El Polo’s goal is to be recognized nationally and internationally as an efficient organization participating in differentiated markets, producing with quality, sustainability and economic profitability.
Cultivation
El Polo's members farm an average of 7 hectares each, contributing to roughly 1,100 hectares of associated coffee production across the cooperative as a whole between 1,000 and 1,200 meters above sea level. Beyond coffee production itself, the cooperative provides financing for coffee farming and other activities, manages the collection and commercialization of members' coffee and executes development projects on behalf of its associates.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Cherry is processed by each member on their farms. The coffee is fully washed and fermented in cement fermentation tanks for around 24 hours. After fermentation, parchment is dried on patios for an average of 6 days.
Coffee in Nicaragua
Nicaragua may not be the most famous producer of Central American coffee, but it has great potential. The country is known as the land of ‘los lagos y los volcanes’ (lakes and volcanos) and has many coffee growing ‘pockets’ that few have heard of or experienced. Many producers in the country are experimenting with new varieties and processing methods, making it a specialty origin to watch.
Many coffee producers in Nicaragua today are buoyed by cooperatives that provide a wide array of services, supports and opportunity. As seen in the win of the ‘El Acuerdo de las Tunas’, where 3,000 landless workers won land rights, collective action by farmers can be far more effective at enacting widespread change than the advocacy of individual farmers.
Cooperatives and farmer associations in Nicaragua encompass a large percentage of the country’s coffee producers, and they are taking their destiny in their own hands. By putting great emphasis on quality and by aiming for the international specialty coffee industry, cooperatives and farmers associations are helping their members gain influence and import that will, hopefully, garner enough profit to enable farmers to continue to improve and invest in their farms and their families.
Large and medium-sized (10+ hectare) farms also hold a significant place in Nicaragua’s coffee landscape, as well. Many of these farms have also prioritized social and environmental issues and are working on quality improvements at both cultivation and post-harvest levels.
Farmers, for the most part, will process coffee on their own farms, and the majority of the time coffee is dried on large drying patios under sun.