Peru Farmgate Juihuay/Umapata Blend – 29805 – GrainPro Bags – SPOT RCWHSE

Position Spot

Bags 65

Warehouses Oakland

About this coffee

Grower

21 farmers organized around Café Orígenes

Altitude

1600 – 2200 masl

Variety

Typica, Catimor, Borbon, Caturra, and Castillo

Soil

Clay loam

Region

Juihuay and Umapata municipalities, Yanatile district, Calca Province, Cusco Department, Peru

Process

Fully washed and dried in the sun

Harvest

May - August

Certification

Conventional

Coffee Background

In Peru the bulk of coffee production comes from small farms owned and managed by people who follow organic farm management practice attuned to their cultural connection with the land.  Producers typically cultivate coffee on just a few acres of land intercropped with shade trees, bananas, corn, and beans. They carefully harvest and sort cherries before depulping, fermenting, washing, and drying the coffee using their own micro-mills. While producers design farm management and post-harvest solutions to fit their needs, they also need a strong alliance to bring their coffee to the international market and earn fair prices.   

This lot is a blend of 21 famers from the Juihuay and Umapata municipalities, part of the Yanatile region of southern Peru. Farm sizes are typically only 1-3 hectares each and all processing is carried out by the farmers themselves on their own properties with small depulper machines, concrete fermentation tanks, and shaded raised beds or patios. Dried parchment is stored safely indoors in GrainPro on site until it can be transferred to a storage facility in the city of Calca. Farmers receive a bonus payment based on the sale price of their coffee, which is distributed directly to them and their communities.  

Café Orígenes is in its second year of business and currently represents about 60 farmers in the Yanatile region. After recognizing that producers in Peru’s Lacco Valley, part of historic the Yanatile/Cusco producing zone, were outnumbered by predatory local buyers and with no direct market access, the founders solicited the help of a local NGO, Andean Alliance for Sustainable Development (AASD). With financial and legislative support of AASD, along with coffee farmers from the area, Café Orígenes was created. In addition to marketing and exportation Café Orígenes also invests in farmer soil fertility and farm resistance to disease, conducts quality control and lot building to maximize differentiation for farmers, and offers full price transparency to their buyers: the 21 contributing farmers to this coffee were paid on average the equivalent of $2.79/lb for green, exportable coffee. 100% of profits are re-invested in the organization to expand access of their services to farmers. Café Orígenes is growing their membership rapidly thanks to a strong reputation in the region for locally-led international partnerships, and is currently undergoing the process of organic certification for coming harvests.