Colombia Huila Palermo Edinson Castaneda GrainPro

Coffee Background

Arrivals from Huila are always a special treat and even more so when they are fully traceable to a particular producer. Edinson Miguel González Castañeda, produced this micro-lot on his 5-acre farm called el Heden in the municipality of Palermo where he lives with his wife and their daughter. Edinson has taken a great deal of care to intercropped his coffee with shade trees, bananas and yucca, which helps him better manage the health of his farm and provides his family with another source of income. Edinson has his own micro-mill where he carefully harvests cherries, depulps and ferments for 20 hours.  After this, he washes the coffee to remove the mucilage and then gently dries it on raised beds over a period of 15 days.  While Edinson has designed farm management and post-harvest solutions to fit his needs, he also has a strong alliance to bring his coffee to the international market and earn fair prices. He has partnered with an exporting company called San Miguel, a family owned company based in Huila that focuses on bringing traceable individual farmer micro-lots to the international market. The partnership has helped Edinson increase earnings from coffee sales, which means he can reinvest in his farm and strengthen his family’s livelihood.