About This Coffee
This Fully washed FTO lot is produced by 11 members of Cooperativa Integral de Ahorro y Crédito Café (COPECAFE) living and farming in Loma Bonita in San Marcos, Guatemala.
COPECAFE supports member farmers through technical and financial programs including sourcing organic inputs, demonstration plots for climate change adaptation and goat raising programs. COPECAFE also provide prefinancing to enable farmers to hire laborers to pick cherry or buy other necessary inputs.
Cultivation
In addition to coffee, farmers also grow other cash and subsistence crops including banana, citrus, avocado and basic grains like corn and wheat.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Farmers and their families selectively handpick ripe, red cherry and process it on their farms. Farmers pulp cherry on an ecopulper that reduces the amount of freshwater used. Coffee is fermented for 16 to 24 hours and then washed in clean water. Parchment is laid on patios or in solar dryers to sun dry. Farmers rake parchment frequently to ensure even drying. It takes approximately 6 days for parchment to dry. Once dry, parchment is rested on the farm for 30 days and then moved to the cooperative warehouse for an additional 60 days before being prepared for export.
Coffee in Guatemala
Guatemala boasts a variety of growing regions and conditions that produce spectacular coffees. Today, the country is revered as a producer of some of the most flavorful and nuanced cups worldwide. We are proud to work with several exceptional in-country partners to bring these coffees to market.
The Guatemalan coffee industry experienced a major setback with the 2010 appearance of Coffee Leaf Rust (CLR) in Latin America. The epidemic peaked in severity in 2012, and though CLR continues to affect some farms, Guatemala continues to produce high-quality, record-breaking coffees. In 2017, new and varied processing methods pushed prices at the Guatemalan Cup of Excellence contest to record highs.
The quality of coffee being produced in Guatemala is increasing, overall, due to the diversity of the industry’s producers. There are more and more small holder farmers producing exceptional coffee at high altitudes. Cooperatives are becoming more appealing to so many smallholders because they often offer farmers financing and other support for improving their farming and processing and are frequently able to offer higher prices for cherry than middlemen. Many cooperatives have initiated quality improvement training for farmer members and are becoming more adept at helping members market their coffee as specialty.