Sustainable Harvest

After several months away on maternity leave, I was really glad to see the familiar faces of co-op managers, presidents, and cuppers at the training event in our office in Lima last week. Everyone had just arrived from their respective homes. To arrive in Lima, they had traveled on average fifteen hours by bus — first over sinuous mountain roads to the coast, and then across the long and monotonous road that crosses the Pacific desert. Among these familiar faces, there was a one that appeared new to me. A humble and slightly shy man, he introduced himself as Jesús, the new president of the Aprocass cooperative.

The first day of the training event started with presentations and discussions on prices, contracts, and quality. Later, we began the process of one-on-one meetings between cooperatives and the roaster representatives at the event. Just before I stepped into the conference room, Jesús, whose meeting was not scheduled until the following day, came over and asked if I would be in the office later that evening. He said his wife had asked him to deliver something to me. I said of course; the meetings were just starting, so I would be at the office for another two hours.

Another twenty minutes passed, and Jesús returned and quietly called me over to him. Timidly, he handed me a small black bag and said, “I have a package for you from my wife, who remembers your visit to our home three years ago very fondly.” And woosh! In that moment, I realized that Jesús was the attentive farmer who welcomed me to his farm and introduced me to his family during a visit three years ago.

Claudia Aleman (foreground) sits down with members of the Aprocass cooperative in Peru

Quickly, my memory transported me to the small, wooden house with a hammock where Jesus and his wife Inocencia slept with their infant son. It was lunchtime, so they had invited us into their simple dining area, where we sat and watched small animals running at our feet — brown and black guinea pigs. Soon the plates of food arrived, each with two potatoes, onions, and of course, well seasoned guinea pig — el manjar del monte or “delicacy of the mountain” as they are called here in Peru — that families serve on special occasions. I was delighted, and what I remember most from that moment is how delicious the guinea pig was — the best that I had eaten in a long time.

I don’t remember what the expression on my face was in that moment as I devoured the meal or how much I praised the food. Yet when Jesus handed me that small black bag in the Lima office three years later — the gift that his wife Inocencia had packaged carefully for the fifteen hour trip — I knew it was guinea pig, prepared especially for me so that I could relive the pleasure that I felt so long ago at their family’s table.

This moment was really special for me, because I have recently realized how small, simple actions, gestures, or even a simple “thank you” can leave an impression on the lives of people that I meet during my travels in this beautiful world of coffee. I have seen how a simple act will be remembered and appreciated for may years, just as a slight will never be forgotten.

I hope it was not only how much I loved their guinea pig that Inocencia and Jesus remember of my visit, but also the message that I brought years ago. The year following my visit to their home, Sustainable Harvest began working with the small Aprocass cooperative. Even in moments when the cooperative faces big challenges, connections like these keep me motivated to continue supporting the farmers of Aprocass and especially Jesús, who has only recently taken over leadership of the co-op. Surely he was elected by the local farmers to represent them because of his kind way with people and his honest principles.

- Claudia Aleman, Sustainable Harvest/Peru

The Farmers of Loma Bonita

Relationship Coffee Manager Adam McClellan was the first coffee buyer the farmers of Loma Bonita had ever seen. The cooperative, more formally known as ACDI, comprises 44 families who pooled their money to purchase an abandoned estate farm near San Marcos from the Guatemalan government. The remote farm lies in a high saddle between two volcanoes, one of which, Tajumulco, is the tallest peak in Central America. Loma Bonita’s organic coffee grows from rich volcanic soil beneath a shade canopy of tropical cloud forest. The fog-like clouds are so constant that when the farmers play soccer on a patch of bare soil at the farm, they call their team “Real Mist.”

Adam toured Loma Bonita with the farmers and their families, talking about the Sustainable Harvest model of transparency, communication, and quality. In turn, they shared information on their organic cultivation techniques and Fair Trade labor practices. After dark, the farmers showed Adam the coffee warehouse by candlelight; the farm is so remote that it has no electricity.

Sunset over Loma Bonita

Despite the challenges the farmers of Loma Bonita face due to their isolation, the market connections they have established with the help of Sustainable Harvest enable them to sell their coffee to U.S. buyers at a fair price. With income from expanded sales, the farmers are close to paying off their debt to the government and owning their land outright. Loma Bonita: “beautiful hill.” One sees why they chose this name not only in the photos of their home, but also in the new-found success of the cooperative’s members.

Clemente Santiago Paz, Sustainable Harvest’s staff agronomist in Mexico, recently returned from visiting our supplier partners located throughout southern Mexico. While on the road, Clemente received first-hand updates from the farmers, who are busy harvesting their coffee. Clemente was especially struck by the participation of women in the cooperatives he visited — this year, several women have been newly elected or appointed to leadership positions. Increasingly, women are beginning to fill roles in cooperatives that were previously held by men. As the Mexico harvest goes into full swing, we would like to introduce a few of the women working behind the scenes to bring us high quality coffee from Mexico:

Señora Francisca García Rivera

Francisca García Rivera

This past October, Francisca García Rivera became a member of the directors council for the Huatusco Cooperative; she is the first women ever to have this position. Huatusco members recently elected a new board of directors, and the President made it a priority to appoint Rivera to the director’s council soon after taking his new post. Rivera owns 2.5 hectares of land in the coffee-producing region of Quapol, Veracruz, Mexico, and comes from a family of coffee producers.

Señora Mirsa Indira Roblero Ramirez

Mirsa Indira Roblero Ramirez

At the Cooperative Triunfo Verde in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, Mirsa Indira Roblero Ramirez was recently elected by members of her community to be their  representative. The first woman representative ever to be elected at Triunfo Verde, Ramirez is in charge of coordinating the work of 29 co-op members, supporting the co-op as it completes its organic inspections, and coordinating the work of the cooperative’s 30,000-plant nursery.

Señora Silvia Roblero Torres

Silvia Roblero Torres

When Silvia Roblero Torres began working at CESMACH cooperative in southern Chiapas, Mexico, in 2003, she was the first woman to ever work there. She quickly proved herself just as capable as the male staff, and now works as an agronomist and internal control officer for the cooperative. She is also in the process of becoming a certified organic inspector. Silvia has taken a particular interest in supporting the women farmers who are part of the cooperative. She helped them organize themselves into groups and offers the women’s groups training and support to develop skills that can help them increase their incomes.

Producer Noe Moreno Salgado of the Montaña de Ocozaca co-op, left, walks among his coffee plants with visitors.

Clemente Santiago from the Sustainable Harvest office in Mexico is visiting the Montaña de Ocozaca cooperative in Veracruz this week. Yesterday, he spent time touring the farm of Noe Moreno Salgado, a coffee producer from the community of Zacamitla.

Clemente and Noe spoke about the upcoming harvest, which will start in December. Noe’s coffee production will be high because in the past few years he has replaced all his old coffee plants with younger trees that produce higher yields. He will harvest the results of this renovation this year — he predicts his plants will produce about 10 tons of coffee cherries per hectare, a yield only dreamed of by most small-scale farmers in Mexico. Over the course of the harvest season, he expects to pick ten kilos of ripe cherries from each Bourbon or Typica tree!

Sara of SH and Phil Beattie of Dillanos Coffee Roasters on a Kalinzi farm.

“You see those flowers?” Rashidi our driver asked me as we hurtled over a hill in Kalinzi. “When you see all these magorogombe flowers it’s a sign that the rains are ending.” It was three weeks ago that the yellow, fierce daisy-like flowers sprang up suddenly all over Kigoma’s roadsides.

I thought “ending” meant that heavy rains and dramatic thunderstorms would turn to the occasional drizzle. Turns out the rains end with a bang.

In May, three green coffee buyers from roasting companies and our quality control manager Stephen Vick drove through steady sheets of rain in a Land Cruiser hard-top (a monster of a car) from Butare, Rwanda to Kigoma, Tanzania.  Fourteen hours later, after lots of skidding on mud and the occasional digging and pushing, our guests arrived in Kigoma.

The next day we visited a farm and washing station in Kalinzi Village.  The station had just opened the day before, so we did not expect to see a lot of volume.  But we wanted our visitors to inspect quality control system at the station, and give the cooperative feedback.

Faida explains proper sorting procedure to a new farmer at Kalinzi washing station. Only red cherries!

Although each step of processing is crucial for total quality, roasters pointed out the cherry-sorting station as the place where we should concentrate our training efforts.  Luckily, Kalinzi has a great asset in its sorting manager, Faida Issa.   “It’s gotta look like this,” she explained and held up a bright red cherry to a farmer who arrived for the very first time that day with many under-ripe cherries.  But don’t think she’s the one doing all the sorting herself. “I’m not the one who’s going to do all the work for you!” she told one farmer.  “I’m here to show you how to do it.”  Phil from Dillanos was impressed by her no-nonsense approach, and let her know that she was doing a stellar job.

Stephen of SH, the Kanyovu Chairman, and Carol from Sevenoaks Trading ran into one another on the roadside.

For us in the remote Kigoma office, visits from roasters are a special occurrence and inject us with new energy.  Bringing the two ends of the supply chain — roasters and farmers — together is inspiring.  For the Kanyovu cooperative, these visits are often the only time to meet face-to-face with the buyers of their coffee. For roasters, the visit gives them the chance to let farmers know what they’re looking for this year, give feedback from last year’s harvest, and see first hand the impact their investment has in the region.

The visit is the essence of the relationship coffee model.

Jeff Taylor of PT's Coffee and Stephen of SH sit at the Matyazo washing station - on benches made from the crate in which the Penagos machine arrived.