Nicaragua Matagalpa Bonanza SHG EP

Sourcing Details

When coffee is cultivated and harvested at small family owned farms, exporters play a critical role in ensuring quality and fairness.  Sabio Coffee in Nicaragua is a family owned export company working in Matagalpa.  Sabio Coffee has established a regional blend with a focus on supporting small farms and providing state-of-the-art processing so importers and roasters can have small batches of cherries cultivated on family farms consolidated with consistent processing that maintains a regional identity in the cup profile.

Processing Details

This regional blend is called Bonanza to represent the idea that coffee can create prosperity for all the actors in the supply chain.  The work starts with traceability to small farms in Matagalpa where the harvest is focused on selective cherry picking.  Coffee cherries are collected and taken to Sabio’s centralized wet mill where they are floated, depulped, fermented for 36 hours and then dried to 10.5 percent using a combination of patios and mechanical drying. Sabio Coffee takes the burden of milling infrastructure and labor costs off of the farmers, and also ensures more uniform processing protocols.

Exporting preparation

For the export preparation, Sabio Coffee has their operation where dried coffee in parchment is cupped and selected for the Bonanza lot.  Sabio’s ability to ensure traceability and quality control throughout the post harvest process is a vital resource for establishing higher prices for producers.  The centralized model has also enabled Sabio Coffee to invest in environmentally friendly initiatives, like a hydroelectric plant to power machinery, processing with a system to recycle and treat water, and organic fertilizer production that utilizes the byproducts like coffee pulp as a central ingredient.