What’s the best way to support coffee producers? This is exactly the question Juan de Dios Castillo (the family’s agronomist) and his 4 siblings were looking to answer when they created J&M Family Coffee, a privately-owned export company named after their parents Juan and Miriam (J&M). Their first goal was to sell their parents’ coffee directly to international buyers. It was a way to honor Finca Paraiso, the farms their parents started during their childhood with the income from the first family business as tailors in the town of Jinotega. J&M Family Coffee quickly learned that many other producers with the same focus on quality and environmental responsibility needed help finding an international market. J&M Family Coffee helped these producers establish a cooperative called Cooperativa Multifuncional Family Coffee to organize their efforts and combine resources to gain certification and develop social projects aimed at improving the quality of life in their communities. Members of COOMULFAC own small farms with just a few acres of coffee production. Small enough that each producer uses their own micro-mill to carefully harvest, sort and then depulp, ferment, wash and pre-dry coffee at the farm. Then COOMULFAC producers deliver coffee to J&M Family Coffee where drying is completed and the coffee is stored and later prepared for export. J&M Family Coffee ensures quality control and traceability from farm to export so producers earn better income to reinvest in their farms and strengthen their families’ livelihoods.
