Sourcing Details:
GUATEMALA ORGANIC COBAN ASOKAPE SHB EP coffee is sourced from the Federación Comercializadora de Café Especial de Guatemala (FECCEG), an umbrella organization that helps smaller cooperatives gain access to the international market. This particular lot comes from 125 producers cultivating coffee on small parcels in the Quiché Mayan community called Chiquixji located in the municipality of San Pedro Carcha within the department of Alta Verapaz. FECCEG has also helped farmers with training on best organic practices and the production of organic compost and biofertilizers.
Processing Details:
This producer group is organized in a cooperative called Asociación Civil de Pequeños y Medianos Agricultores del Kape (ASOKAPE), which operates a centralized wet mill. Producer carefully harvests coffee from their farm with focus on picking only fully ripened cherries, which are delivered to a centralized mill that has been designed to preserve the quality and consistency of the coffee coming from many small farms. At the mill, the cherries are washed and sorted with a siphon to remove damaged and less dense coffee. The selected cherries are then depulped, fermented and washed. Washed coffee in parchment is gently dried with a mechanical dryer called a guardiola and then stored until it is time to prepare the coffee for export.
Exporting Details:
At this stage, FECCEG steps in to support producers with transportation, warehousing and cupping analysis, and later provides the preparation for export. FECCEG has worked hard to ensure coffee traceability so that producers receive more income for improved quality. Increased earnings from coffee sales help strengthen a producer family’s livelihood.
