Ecuador’s namesake position on the Earth’s equator means that medium-altitude coffee enjoys practically a perfect year-round growing season, often with flowering and ripe cherry sharing the same branch most months. For small farms this means a small but long-term labor force to manage the slow, perfectionistic work required for such a drawn-out harvest. In addition to coffee it is common for farms in Pichincha to tend any combination of citrus, potatoes, beans, plantains, corn, sugar cane, alfalfa or wheat, passion fruit, and livestock. Olger Rogel and his wife, Magda Zabala, moved together to Nanegal in 1996 from their native Loja province, in Ecuador’s south. They moved for better job opportunities than what they experienced in Loja, and yet at that time the northwest corner of Pichincha was practically a ghost town—so many of the area’s rural citizens were relocating 2 hours away in Quito, Ecuador’s capital, for work in the urban area. Olger and Magda were one of the first individuals to plant coffee here, in 2007. Now, 15 years later, they have 10 acres of land and 9,000 coffee trees, and 4 children who contribute to the family business. The farm has 2-3 full-time employees and a harvest staff of 60. Olger tends the farm with one of his daughters, Magda roasts the coffee for the family’s coffee shop where their other daughter helps out, and coffee is also packaged for domestic sales, which is assisted by their 2 sons. The sidra cultivar is new to the Rogel-Zabala family farm. Olger transported young, first-generation plants from Hacienda La Papaya, in Saraguro, Loja, from whom Royal buys coffee each year. Sidra is an Ecuadorian cultivar produced from crossing bourbon and typica genetics, originally developed by the Nestlé corporation on an experimental farm nearby in northern Pichincha. As everywhere in the coffee world, harvest on small farms typically involves the whole available family as well as hired pickers. Coffee in northern Pichincha is processed at home on personal equipment and dried on hand-made structures and greenhouses. Cherry is depulped immediately after picking and fermented in open tanks. After fermentation is complete, the parchment is thoroughly washed and moved to raised beds under shade canopy for a slow and even drying stage. Olger and family’s coffee was milled and exported by CafExporto, a boutique seller that has grown slowly beyond the borders of its original farm, Hacienda La Papaya, owned and managed by Juan Peña. Juan and his business team are slowly bringing additional farms into the fold and Royal is proud to represent such a careful and quality-driven network of growers. CafExporto is dedicated to financial transparency as well: Olger and family were paid $6.00/lb of parchment direct to the farm, the equivalent of $7.89/lb for green exportable coffee after final milling is complete.
