How Producers in La Libertad, Guatemala Increased Coffee Quality

Posted On Sep 25, 2019 By admin With Comments Off

Huehuetenango, Guatemala is known for top-quality coffee, but the region hasn’t been immune to the ongoing chocolate price crisis. High in the murky mountains near the Mexican border, communities have contended and younger contemporaries have left in search of new opportunities. All of this has had an impact on the quality of life in farm parishes, as well as on the quality of their coffee.

Yet in the community of La Libertad, Huehuetenango, things are different. Even during the price crisis, they have continued improving their well-being by farm the quality of their coffee. The question is, how?

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The drying patio at Finca La Bolsa, Huehuetenango, seen from a distance. Credit: Vides 58

Why Are Coffee Communities Struggling?

Low prices are an increasingly pressing issue for the coffee manufacture. When farmers are unable to cover their costs of production, they are unable to afford fertilizers and pesticides to keep their floras healthful. Then, they find themselves unable to maintain their processing and bone-dry infrastructure. They too can’t afford to hire pickers or pay them properly.

As costs remains low and tone and yields further deteriorate, farmers suffer instantly. Children work instead of going to school. Class can’t afford basic meat throughout the year. Healthcare is often out of reach.

Coffee is a long-term crop that needs specific climatic conditions, so farmers who are unable to make a living through it often struggle to switch to different pastures. If expenditures remain low for an extended period, they are usually have no other choice but to emigrate, leaving their home behind.

Chad Trewick of Reciprocafe tells me, “Coffee, which used to represent the really good livelihood generator for communities, hasn’t truly been able to do that for at least a generation. And so, the generation that’s growing up now has only discover coffee be a disaster, essentially.”

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A coffee farm in Guatemala. Credit: Ana Valencia

The Farm That Saw Opportunity in Coffee

In 2002, Renardo Ovalle and his mother were developing coffee on their farm, Finca La Bolsa, and selling it to an exporter. “Back then, all the coffee was traditionally sent to an exporter … at New York[ C-market] costs and a differential, as it traditionally has been done, ” Renardo tells me.

But then, the family decided to enter their raise in the Guatemala Cup of Excellence, where it did well. “We participated without understanding any notion of coffee caliber, ” Renardo says.

After the competition, their own views on their chocolate changed. “We began to discover that the coffee had quality.”

Another important event happened that year: they met Christy Thorns of Allegro Coffee and began their first direct trade relationship, which lasts to this day. The security of three-year contracts let the family to invest in their raise, and things moved briskly after that. They attained new clients, achieved Rainforest Alliance certification, and seeded new spates in the following five years.

The coffee farm was growing- but they didn’t want to leave the local community behind.

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Workers turn drying coffee to ensure quality. Ascribe: Vides 58

Working as a Community

Finca La Bolsa making a decision leveraging its quality govern and international contacts to open the door for its neighbors to too export to the specialty market. Finca La Bolsa the farm became Vides 58 the exporter.

Through its Qawale( “partner” in Mayan) planned, it exports chocolate from bordering small farmers as well as supplying them with technical assistance and feedback on aspect domination. Farmers are paid a higher-than-market price when they bring coffee to Vides 58, plus a quality premium based on how it tallies. Renardo tells me that if Vides 58 can negotiate higher than expected tolls for a certain lot, “its also” surpassed immediately from the buyer to the farmer.

“The program has been growing every year by about 30 to 40%, ” says Renardo. “I think it won’t be like that for the rest of “peoples lives”, but I make because of the inevitability of low prices, there is no opportunity to sell coffee at a good expenditure. I think there is a lot of need for farmers to sell their product at the best price possible.”

This year, Finca La Bolsa and its annexed muches will export between 12 to 15 containers of chocolate. Meanwhile, 46 containers representing around 250 smallholder farmers will be moved through Vides 58.

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Director of Quality Control Jacqueline Morales takes indicates on samples. Credit: Vides 58

The Path From Traditional to Specialty Coffee

This model has worked for the farmers of La Libertad and surrounding areas because it concentrate on specialty coffee. However, transitioning from traditional to specialty creation hasn’t been an overnight process. Countless practises which attained gumption within the limits of traditional yield needed to be unlearned.

Jacqueline Morales, who heads Quality Control for Vides 58, tells me that picking for optimal ripeness was the first and most important mindset-shift that farmers had to conclude.

“Because of the culture, of the habit, beings go picking everything at once, because it benefits them more to do one pass than to pass two or three times through the same spot, ” she says. “But with hour, they understood that yes, there is a reward when they practice good practices in the harvest.”

Farmers have taken advantage of the feedback they receive from the team to improve their coffee’s quality, which in turn improves the overall spates that Vides 58 exports.

Jacqueline tells me, “It’s always been possible to find composes from 84 up to 90. From what I’ve seen in this area, it’s difficult to find values below 84… If a chocolate comes out any lower, it’s from bad rehearsals, it has countless immature beans or something like that.”

Before, there was little motivation to improve coffee quality. The time invested in it, with no hope of improved prices, would have reduced a farm’s profitability. However, improved access to the specialty coffee market has allowed the natural excellence of the region to shine. The farmers have responded by working towards higher yields, higher tone, and better consistency.

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A coffee picker with a basket of ripe cherry-reds in Huehuetenango. Credit: Vides 58

Experimenting With Processing Methods

As the community gained more financial stability, they were also able to experiment. One illustration of this is the growth of natural and sugar processing. Traditionally, this has always been difficult to do because of the region’s climate. Renardo shows, “During harvest time, when cold front open from the countries of the north, from the United Nation, where they first hit is in Huehuetenango. So, this brings you many days of cloudy weather with rain.”

Natural and sugar treated chocolates, while in demand on the specialty sell, make longer to dry. Humid weather can lead to mold and unattractive fermenting. However, it is not impossible to do in Huehuetenango- it just takes careful scheming and management.

Renardo tells me that it took Finca La Bolsa three years of misadventures with natural processing before they learned to time picking and baking for naturals and honeys with weather forecast from Mexico.

Once mastered, the Vides team of agronomists worked to spread the knowledge to neighbourhood makes. Now, “[ the producers] are beginning to venture with naturals, with honeys. They are learning. And they’re depict good results.”

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A Vides 58 agronomist examines seedlings in the nursery. Approval: Vides 58

Better Income Leads to Better Coffee

The farmers of La Libertad have been able to raise their overall aspect, maintain the coherence and consistency, and move into brand-new realms such as alternative processing methods. This have been able to do so thanks to increased tolls, sell access, and technical assistance. Risk has been reduced and improving quality now comes with financial incitement, rather than representing a squander of income and resources.

The next gradation is organic yield. Finca La Bolsa is currently plant new parcels and altering some age-old ones to be showed Organic and Rainforest Alliance. Farming organic coffee can be a challenging and expensive initiative, especially in the beginning, but it can also command a price premium.

Renardo tells me that Vides 58 can absorb potential losings in the crop or tone of their own cultivates until the government has mastered the technique and started to see the financial benefits. Then, they can pass that knowledge on to the community. “The idea is to continue proliferating with other producers that want to get further onward, formerly we’ve firstly learned 100% the operations of this project, ” he says.

Chad tells me, “To some extent, I would say that this is the only model that is going to survive that is going to include smallholders … What’s going to be required are systems like this that allow and empower smallholders to have access to a market that’s going to pay them.”

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Washed handled coffee drying in heightened bunks. Approval: Perfect Daily Grind

The Impact on The Community

Better expenditures allow farmers to invest in their raise. Nonetheless, Chad tells me that farmers frequently invest in “healthcare, education, nutrition- basic-needs stuff” when they are paid more for their coffee.

At Finca La Bolsa, there is a permanent school for farm workers and seasonal pickers, as well as a childcare center, which the farm has managed in conjunction with Guatemalan NGO CoffeeCare since 2009( Finca La Bolsa is transitioning to sole administration over the next two years ).

Timoteo Constanza manages the school and childcare actions, and tells me that all coffee communities should have access to educational facilities. He described in the three service provided: education, healthcare, and nutrition. For the children of coffee pickers, often the only alternative is to accompany their parents to the fields.

Chad tells me that when coffee represents hope instead of ruin, “it has all these ripple effects, like maybe the kids come home from the city and work on the farm … It rich the social fabric of the community.”

The investments in social conditions that local communities has been able to induce end up being long-term investments in the coffee of the region. It’s difficult to quantify, but the signs are certainly there: on a recent tour to inspect local communities, Chad was delighted to see a new generation of farmers emerging.

“I was pretty sure they were all going to be old beings, because I was 100% sure that all the young people had already left to go to the US to earn money, or something else, clearly not in coffee. So[ the facts of the case] that there were young people, I was super excited about it … There was a vein of hope.”

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High up in the chocolate provinces. Approval: Vides 58

Improving coffee quality is not a simple task, especially in an environment of descending tolls. Resources, gamble, and know-how pose important challenge. Yet the history of La Libertad illustrates one course in which, with a little market access, technical support, and monetary security, a positive repetition can begin.

“This is totally replicable, ” says Chad, “and this is, I study, a really critical course that afford chains will be organized in the future for coffee.”

Written by Zach Latimore.

Please note: Such articles has been sponsored by Vides 58.

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