Emilio Lopez Diaz Talks Coffee Production in El Salvador

Tell us a bit about yourself.

Emilio: I’m a seventh-generation coffee farmer in El Salvador. One side of my family migrated to this country back in 1820 and then the other side in 1860. My family came from different parts of the world: from Spain, Colombia and beyond. They moved to El Sal specifically for coffee. There was a coffee boom back then and El Salvador was the place to be. Now, we’ve been doing it for over 7 generations. My kids are now the 8^th generation to farm the same plot of land, same tradition. I’ve been involved in the business for almost 23 years, since 2000. I have seen many changes in such a short amount of time. I’m involved in production, milling, exporting, and we do a little bit of roasting as well. We do a little bit of importing into the US also. And for the most part, we work directly with partners, with importers who connect us to roasters. And we try to keep a very solid connection in our relationships with roasters. The feedback that we get from them is key for us to continue to produce and process the coffee.

What is Odyssey Coffees? What do you do?

We are a vertically integrated company from seed to cup. We produce and source coffees from El Salvador. We process, store and export these coffees to roasters and partners around the world.  We have operations with deep roots in El Salvador, headquarters in the US in Portland, Oregon and logistics partners in Europe. We are now partnering with Sucafina in Australia and are hoping that this partnership will help us solidify the relationship that we currently have with roasters there.

From where do you source your coffee?

We have 6 farms that are all located in the western part of El Salvador. Each has a different landscape, different terroir, different varieties. El Salvador is a tiny little country, but it is extremely diverse in the quality of coffee that it produces. We also source from different farmers in the area and then of course we have two mills where we process and store coffees before export.

Tell us a bit about your farms.

We have 6 farms. I’ll share a little information about each.

La Cumbre is located in Santa Ana between 1,500 and 1,550 meters above sea level. This is where I planted fun and delicious varieties such as Pacamara, SL34, SL28 and Geisha.

El Manzano is also in Santa Ana at 1,300 to 1,550 meters above sea level. For the most part this farm is Bourbon, but we also have Geisha, Pacamara, Pacas and more.

Ayutepeque means “Turtle Mountain” in the Mayan language and lies at 1,000 to 1,100 meters and the coffee we produce here is great for espresso. Because it’s mainly Bourbon, it’s a rich flavor with notes of caramel and chocolate. It’s super, super tasty.

Las Isabellas is a very unique farm because it has its own private forest reserve in the middle of the farm. We've recorded all kinds of wild animals on the farm. Different cats, including ocelots, and several very unique species of animals. And it has a beautiful waterfall as well.

Then we have Tapantogusto, which in the Mayan language means “covered with clouds.” With the perfect weather this farm is mainly planted with Bourbon and Pacas varieties.

Las Piedras is adjacent to Tapantogusto and planted from 1,000 to 1,200 meters; this farm is full of windbreakers. Here at this growing region, the winds are strong and hurt the coffee trees; we use natural barriers, or lines formed by a vertical and skinny tree type, to protect the coffee.

What about the rest of your operations?

We have two mills. El Manzano mill is located at the El Manzano farm. There’s a patio for drying coffees and it’s got beautiful equipment that’s modern and state-of-the-art. We process about 10,000 bags of cherry there each year. This is where we also have our dry mill which has the capacity to process about 25,000 bags. This is where we hull all of our coffees for export.

Tequendama is our other mill. It’s smaller and it is located at our Las Isabellas farm. The capacity there is 5,000 bags. Everything goes to El Manzano for hulling.

What sustainability projects are you involved in?

Just as I’m a 7^th generation farmer who inherited a strong tradition from my family, I want to be able to pass the business along to future generations. To do this, we need to be sustainable, environmentally, economically and socially.

Growing Together is a sustainability program at Odyssey Coffees that’s focused on our community and our employees, neighbors and the small and medium sized coffee producers that work with us. Labor is one of our biggest problems – people migrate abroad seeking better opportunities. By helping them become economically stable, we can ensure enough labor to continue coffee production in El Salvador for generations to come. All of our employees are 4+ generations of workers who have been in the same region involved in coffee for decades.

Most of the farmers we work with are small. To support these producers, we offer workshops on technical training including how to prune, how to read your soil analysis results, how to read market prices, how to understand trends in coffee and more. On the sales side, we’re differentiating their coffee with a special blend called “Growing Together.” We also have medium-sized farmers where you can select their specific lots. We prepay for the coffee we buy to allow farmers to buy fertilizers and pay for other costs. The benefits of the program are visible. The coffee from this program has increased from 80 SCA points to 83 SCA points since we began and continues to increase.

Additionally, all of our farms are Rainforest Alliance certified. The benefit for us is to keep track of a lot of information and results. Rainforest Alliance gives us a structure. It gives us a way to measure ourselves instead of just doing things. Before we fertilize or apply anything, we need to justify the why. We do soil analysis and leaf analysis. If we’re going to spray something against coffee leaf rust, we go out and monitor and take readings of what percent of infestation we have and justify why we are going to spray specifically on that land.

We also maintain 75 hectares of private reserve on Las Isabellas. We’re committed to preserving this. I hope that one day you can come and visit it. It’s beautiful. It’s a primary forest, like it has been for millennia: untouched forest. We’ll do everything we can to keep this reserve intact. We try to preserve it, but we also share some of the resources this forest gives us. There’s a community about 1 kilometer away where we share some of the spring water with them and provide clean water for about 2,000 families.

We also run programs with our employees and communities. We bring a medical team to the farm and collaborate with different NGOs and the government to do medical campaigns. Our employees can bring their families and we go directly to schools in different communities. We sponsored a vision test for 249 students and 13 teachers at 2 schools. 32% of children needed glasses and we sponsored the glasses.

What are your plans for the future?

To be honest, the future of coffee at origin is quite uncertain if you ask me. El Salvador specifically, is the smallest country in Latin America, where land is pretty much the only resource we have and where construction and housing development is pressuring agriculture in a tremendous way. From the 80’s until now, coffee went from being 20% of GDP to less than 0.5%; from producing 3.5 million bags to nearly 350K today. Being a dollarized country makes it even harder to compete in a international market when the price of coffee is around the same price as it was 50 years ago, and where inputs and wages have increased at least 500% in that time. The passion and dedication we give to coffee and to the land is what keeps us going. I do wish I’m able to pass the business along to my family. It is so crucial for our partners and coffee consumers in general to understand the cost of producing a good cup of coffee; that is the biggest challenge.

I do see a future where coffee is economically viable again in El Salvador, where the efficiency of production and processing, together with a strong partnership with the community along the farms, and where the coffee importer and roaster understand and recognize the economics of the supply chain.

Differentiation, quality and uniqueness will always create value. We will stick to those together with our values and trust that our partners appreciate and value our work. 

We are proud to partner with Odyssey Coffees to bring sustainable, delicious coffees from El Salvador to our clients. Their coffees just arrived in Australia and are shipping to the US this month. These won’t be around for long, get in touch with your trader today to sample and book.