Roger Antonio Baos FW

Roger Antonio Baos grew up on his family coffee farm in Cauca. He moved to Huila in the early 2000s and settled at Finca Las Delicias with his partner, Noralba and their daughter Yulica. Roger’s son, Robinson owns and operates a coffee farm nearby.

Roger produces organic fertilizer that he applies to his coffee trees 2 to 3 times per year. The soil at Finca Las Delicias is mostly loam. The land is watered by a naturally occurring spring.

Roger hires up to 18 laborers to handpick cherry. He floats and visually sorts cherry upon receipt from laborers and places selected cherry in clean bags to rest overnight. In the morning, Roger pulps cherry and ferments it for approximately 40 hours before washing the parchment and placing it in a parabolic dryer. It takes approximately 14 to 20 days for parchment to dry. Roger plans to build another parabolic dryer to increase his processing capacity.

The Huila region is one of the most well-known coffee growing areas of Colombia. The Department of Huila has a population of 1.125 million and is located in the southwest of the country. The capital of the department is Neiva, a city of about 380,000.  

Along with Cauca and Nariño, Huila is one the three departments where the Colombian Massif is located. A massif is a group of mountain ranges and the Colombian Massif, which is known locally as Nudo de Almaguer, provides up to 70% of safe drinking and agricultural water for the Colombian population. 

The Magdalena River, Colombia’s largest river, runs through the region, providing plenty of water for coffee farming and generating (directly and indirectly) up to 86% of Colombia's GDP. The mountain range also features the fertile volcanic soil so typical to the Andean Mountains.