Producer Spotlight: Carlos Pola

Looking for a career change? A tough decision that some people might not consider, but for Carlos Pola, following his family history and passion for coffee motivated him to step from the textile sector into growing coffee. We are glad to share Carlos' story, when almost ten years ago decided to implement his experience in the coffee world, and turning him into one of the best producer in El Salvador.

Carlos and his wife Patricia

His family has been dedicated to the coffee production for over five different generations, growing up in surrounded by the coffee culture since he was a child. Leveraging his background, he has renewed the plantation and has redesigned his farms to reduce cost of production whereas to increase his production. What is special about Carlos' agricultural practices and how did he achieve it?

Carlos has implemented an innovative agricultural architecture of double rows and straight contour lines to simulate a spider-web. Another innovation in Carlos' farms is the propagation of mycorrhizae, a fungi that creates a symbiotic relation with plants to exchange nutrients by fixing the shades of the trees and covering the soil to fix rain water. This helps him to reduce the the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

The outstanding quality of his coffees is recognized around the world by consumer and judges in several competitions. In 2018 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil,, in the worldwide championship for Good Spirits, Dan Fellow won the competition using Carlos' coffee, with a semi-washed Red Capamara.

Carlos and Patricia celebrating with Dan Fellow

Besides his sustainable farms, Carlos constantly innovates to develop new processing methods (honeys, naturals, and controlled fermentations), and different drying methods. He also supports his community by helping farmers, and he has developed his own application for traceability that can trace coffee from farm to cup by scanning a QR code.

QR code app developed by Carlos

His farms are located in the middle of Apaneca Ilamatepeq in Juayua town, along the Ruta de las Flores (The route of the flowers). San Antonio, Las Brisas, and San Roque are located at 2100 meter above sea level surrounded by unique micro-climates that give to Carlos' coffee their complex cupping notes and profile.What farms are we working with him?

African beds in San Antonio Farm

Different lots for honeys and naturals are part now of our portfolio in Coffee Exchange. Two hybrids that have been in his farm for more than 40 years, the H1 and H2, and Parainema can be bought by our roasters through our sales platform. We also want to praise Carlos for being an active user of our Producer Platform, he has been a user of our beta-version and his feedback was included in later versions of our system.

For more information about this shipment and our relationship with Carlos Pola, please reach our team and we will contact you shortly,.

Pictures and information provided by Carlos Pola,