Colombia

La Orquidea Asoprocafees FW IMPACT

The Asociación De Productores De Café Especial La Orquídea (Asoprocafees) has been focused on sustainable coffee cultivation since 2014 when they were formed to help producers in Planadas, Tolima access new markets. Achieving IMPACT verification (Sucafina’s responsible sourcing program) helps them tap into new markets and continue improving the environmental and economic sustainability of their coffee production.  

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Details

Coffee Grade:
Excelso EP
Farm/Coop/Station:
Asociación De Productores De Café Especial La Orquídea (Asoprocafees)
Varietal:
Castillo, Caturra, Colombia, Typica
Processing:
Fully washed
Altitude:
1,400 to 2,000 meters above sea level 
Owner:
55+ members of Asoprocafees
Subregion/Town:
Planadas
Region:
Tolima
Farm Size:
3 to 5 hectares on average
Bag Size:
70kg GrainPro
Certifications:
IMPACT
Harvest Months:
Year-round, depending on the region

About This Coffee

Seeking better prices for their coffees, 10 entrepreneurs in Planadas, Tolima founded the Asociación De Productores De Café Especial La Orquídea (Asoprocafees) in 2014. The group’s numbers soon swelled to 30 and then 50+ members who remain committed to getting better prices by improving the quality and sustainability of their coffee.  

Planadas is a remote region that continues to recover from years of intense guerrilla violence. While peace has been restored, the area still faces significant challenges, including limited economic opportunities and underdeveloped infrastructure. In this context, La Orquidea plays a practical role in supporting the community by creating jobs and encouraging skill development. 

The cooperative has focused on certifying and training their producers to achieve certifications. To do this, they have invested in constructing, improving and maintaining all the infrastructure that it takes to produce excellent coffee. This includes building warehouses, improving roads and continuing to educate their farmers on best practices in harvest and processing. 

In 2023, Asoprocafees attained IMPACT verification, highlighting the potential for small producer groups to create meaningful impact by combining practical community-focused initiatives with high-quality coffee production. 

IMPACT, Sucafina’s responsible sourcing program, helps farmers access new markets while helping them with the tools they need as they invest in their farm’s social and environmental sustainability. With IMPACT, farmers focus on promoting forest conservation, reducing carbon emissions, promoting regenerative agriculture, protecting human rights and attaining a living income.   

Coffee from La Orquidea reflects the characteristics of Tolima’s unique terroir, with a cup score expectation of 84-85. It features flavor notes of black cherry, dark chocolate, apple, and brown sugar with a viscous body.   

Cultivation

IMPACT has helped Asoprocafees overcome challenges in cultivation by providing access to 10 soil analyses, which has enabled farmers to better understand their soil health and optimize fertilizer application. Inspired by the results, Asoprocafees now plans to expand soil testing to all farms within their supplier networks. This focus on soil health supports sustainable farming practices and improved yields. Additionally, IMPACT helps Asoprocafees access new markets for verified coffees, maintaining price premiums and supporting their efforts to cover overhead costs associated with certification. Collaborating with the Sucafina Colombia team, IMPACT continues to develop custom projects that directly benefit producers and the broader community. 

Harvest & Post-Harvest

Producers process their cherry on their farms. They selectively handpick cherry and then pulp it. After coffee ferments, farmers wash parchment in clean water and lay it to sundry.  

Asoprocafees uses their Fairtrade and Organic premiums to improve milling and post-harvest infrastructure, advance processing knowledge and establish a quality lab. These investments aim to enhance the quality and value of their coffee. They also offer workshops for young people to learn about careers in coffee beyond farming, including quality control, barista training and accounting. These initiatives focus on strengthening the post-harvest stages while also creating opportunities for the next generation. 

About Tolima

Tolima lies deeply nestled in the Central Andes. While the climate is well suited for coffee production, Tolima has remained a less popular region due to the prevalence of armed conflict and drug trafficking. Many farming communities have been caught in the crosshairs of these conflicts.    

More recently, the region has had an opportunity to open up and reduce incidents of violence and drug production or smuggling. Despite its complicated past, Tolima is Colombia’s third-largest coffee-producing department. 

In such conditions, producer organizations play an important role in transforming their communities. Associations or cooperatives can create more jobs and make coffee appear more appealing to young people. Many groups in the region organize courses and training to develop barista skills, quality control and even business management.  

In a region where the job availability outside of coffee farming is very limited, providing new opportunities for work is essential to draw young people away from becoming involved in the endless cycle of violence and criminality. On top of all the community-wide benefits, being part of a cooperative helps producers gain much better access to support on an agronomical, commercial and economic level. 

Excelso

Over the years, the term Excelso has held a few different meanings. What has not changed, however, is that only the best Colombian coffees are permitted to be exported.  

Excelso is supplied in steady volume throughout the year. In the cup, it displays a reliably distinctive combination of body and acidity.  

European Preparation (EP)

EP stands for European Preparation. EP beans are Screen 15+ with a low defect tolerance. 

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, in turn, 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, UTZ and Organic.

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