Small Batch in Guatemala

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The bulk of our purchasing in Guatemala is from smallholder producers in Huehuetenango. Whereas previously we were prepared to scour the country while satisfying these goals, these days we realise that our limited resources are best applied to working more deeply in more confined area. With this in mind, we’re now focussing our work on several “friends, family and neighbours” groups as well as three associations, located around El Paraiso, Agua Dulces, San Antonio Huista and Todo Santos Cuchumatan.
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Keeping it in the family – our sister company, Shared Source.
We prioritise producers who care for the environment in their farm practices, by planting and managing shade trees, transitioning away from chemical inputs, carefully analysing soil content in order to use fertilisers judiciously, carefully and responsibly managing waste water, and leaving areas of natural vegetation on their farms to encourage biodiversity.
 

Guatemala is a pristine and lovely place to buy coffee. The cherries ripen uniformly and they are allowed to attain lovely deep red and purple colours prior to being picked. It’s culturally routine for smallholder and largeholder alike to do this, and also use shade trees to good advantage.

We purchase coffee in Guatemala in parchment form, receiving it in the local unit – quintales– and paying in Guatemalan quetzales directly to producers’ or their association’s bank accounts.

 
ader

Ader Recinos
Our longest and proudest single smallholder producer relationship in Guatemala is with Ader Recinos. Ader is a young man who returned from time abroad to take over the family farm, nestled at a perfect 1750-2000 masl in a hamlet adjacent to several very famous coffee Estates. He is smart in his plant husbandry and soil management, his picking, processing and drying. Above all this we treasure our relationship with Ader because he sees a long term future in coffee, which is all too rare for young people who inherit the management of the family farm.

Ader has also introduced us to neighbours, to cousins, and mates. We’re only wishing we could buy the whole hamlet’s coffee to ensure the producers receives a higher premium across all their coffee!

 

 

 
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A tidy patio at the end of a season, but there is no rest as we keep working towards a better future in Guatemala.
We’ve come a long way from our first fumbling parchment purchase back in 2013, but we still consider our sourcing programme a continual work-in-progress. We’re guided by the pursuit of great flavours from ecologically advanced farms and unique microclimates, and above all by being good partners to the producers and associations that rely on us.

 
#powertotheproducer
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