GUATEMALA ORGANIC LOS VOLCANES

Most look to western Guatemala for coffee, but there is something exciting to offer from the heart of the country. Organic Los Volcanes is sourced from several different organic certified cooperatives located in the less traveled department of Alta Verapaz, north of the city of Coban. The region has thousands of indigenous communities where coffee has been cultivated for generations on small farms that average 3 acres in size. Producers process their harvest with their own micro-mill, which allows for meticulous care in cherry selection, depulping, fermenting, and drying the coffee. They have also organized themselves into cooperatives to overcome the obstacles they face in a rugged and isolated region of Guatemala. The cooperatives provide centralized warehouses to store dried parchment until it is time to move the coffee across the country along rough roads to Guatemala City where the coffee is prepared for export. Through cooperatives, the producers have combined their efforts to gain technical assistance for managing their farms with the best organic practices and learned new strategies to protect their farms from the impact of climate change and focus on strategies to improve quality. Using materials, like coffee pulp, to make organic fertilizers has helped reduce the transportation costs associated with purchasing fertilizer from afar, and at the same time, creates an abundant source of fertilizer that ensures better yields and quality.