Colombia Huila Palermo Alexander 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. Alexander Castañeda Gonzalez produced this micro-lot on his 8.5-acre farm called San Isidro in the municipality of Palermo where he lives with his wife and their 3 children. Alexander has taken a great deal of care to intercropped his coffee with bananas and fruit trees, which helps him better manage the health of his farm and provides his family with another source of income. Alexander has his own micro-mill where he carefully harvests cherries and holds them for 24 hours to ferment before depulping and fermenting for another 28 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 Alexander 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 Alexander increase earnings from coffee sales, which means he can reinvest in his farm and strengthen his family’s livelihood.