Producers spotlight: Peru's micro lots series

Meet Peru as a coffee origin. Peru was the tenth largest coffee producer in the world in 2017, one of the first countries in the Americas to obtain coffee cultivation, and is generally regarded as a producer of fine coffee beans. The history of Peruvian coffee is worth exploring, but also worth being known and tasted by more people.

Peru has become one of the world's top producers of organic certification, rainforest alliance certification and UTZ certification.More than 225,000 households in Peru grow and produce coffee. These families are organized by the spontaneous cooperatives (cooperativas) formed by the coffee farmers.

Coffee Farmer: Pastor Eguavil. Farm Name: El Progreso

The cooperative provided support and protection for Peruvian small coffee farmers: it not only allowed coffee farmers to survive the coffee price crisis in the 1990s, but also stood out in the strong competitive environment of subsequent multinational companies.

According to the 2012 census, these 225,000 families planted a total of 425,000 hectares of coffee, on average, nearly 2 hectares per coffee farmer in the country.

The members of our center are all small coffee farmers, who produce an average of 30 to 40 bass (1.5 to 2 tons) a year. They live on coffee. As a result, almost all of them use domestic labor. Women play a very important role in the development of coffee and agriculture, and they are important supporters in the production sector.

We worked with 7 coffee farmers this time, these 7 coffee farmers who participated in last year's 2020 COE. They are small farmers and live on 100% coffee. These coffee farmers put a lot of attention to quality issues, from the three regions of Junin, Cusco and Catamarcas.

Coffee Farmer: David Guizado Centeno. Farm Name: Santa Elena

In 2020, the Coffee Exchange team cup tested samples from multiple COE production areas. Peru impressed us deeply with its clean taste, light floral and fruit aroma and pleasant sourness. This is also the product we want to make this relatively niche production area for domestic bakers. The main reason why beans bring to everyone.

In 2011, after hard work, we began to do coffee cup testing competitions locally. Interestingly, in Peru, coffee culture is very poor, and in Peru we don't drink much coffee. With the exception of Brazil, coffee-producing countries rarely drink coffee.

We expect that this part of coffee farmers is aging now. Because the average age of these producers is over 52 years old, and young people do not want to grow coffee. Such an impact will appear in the next 10 to 15 years. So, to keep young people focused on coffee, we started the coffee tasting program and barista training program.

In 2017, we held the Peruvian COE Cup of Excellence. Now that the competition has been held for four years, the effect is very, very positive. An online auction will be held after the competition. All winning coffees have been sold and all coffee can be exported.