Hector Zuniga Huila FW

Hector Zuniga has been producing coffee for more than 2 decades. In the beginning, he and his brother worked alongside his father, who is himself a lifelong coffee producer. As Hector started his own family, he strove to instill his passion for coffee in his own children who now, as adults, work with Hector on Finca La Suiza.

Hector was motivated to shift to specialty coffee following the coffee leaf rust outbreak in 2011. In the midst of the outbreak, Hector saw the need to create new markets and cater to specialty producers. His dream is to create an even more sustainable and profitable model overtime. He focuses on adding value through a focus on high-quality cultivation and innovative processing.

While most of the work is done by the family, Hector does hire additional labor during the harvest season to ensure only ripe, red cherry is picked. Finding skilled pickers is a consistent problem for Hector and other farmers in the region, where labor is short due to climate and migration changes.

Once harvested, cherry is delivered to the on-site wet mill. Cherry is pulped and fermented for 12 hours. Then, coffee is moved to stainless steel tanks to fermented for a further 50 hours. Following fermentation, coffee is washed in clean water and dried in a mechanical dryer.