By Lauren Cropper, Sales Associate & Certification Specialist

Green Coffee Field Report

Peruvian coffee is a cornerstone bean that fulfills an important washed mild profile. For our team, it had been at least ten years since the last visit. At the end of July, VP of Trading Activity, Alex Mason and I took two weeks to spend time with four cooperatives located in northern Peru.

Alex and other traders at Royal have visited these same growing regions many times but this was a first for me.

Day 1: Our first stop after arriving in Peru via Lima is a domestic flight to Chiclayo on the northern coast. Outside the single terminal airport, we meet up with Carlos from APROCASSI cooperative and start the 7-hour car trip to one of the main coffee hubs in the region, San Ignacio. First we zoom along the hot, sandy straightaways which become dotted with more vegetation by the hour. The road begins to curve and we begin our ascent into the Andes. Met by chickens, dogs and donkeys roaming about the remote villages along the two-lane road, we climb higher and higher with each tight turn. As someone with a fear of heights, I’m acutely aware of how high and steep the mountainsides are and where each guard rail starts and ends. After a few hours of maintaining a white-knuckled grasp on the car’s grab handle, the road becomes more forgiving. We pass through Jaen, marked by dozens upon dozens of small to mid-size warehouses painted with the same message: “Compramos Cafe (We Buy Coffee).” Shortly, after we arrive in San Ignacio.

Day 2: We start the day with Sales Manager, Larissa and General Manager, Duberli at APROCASSI’s San Ignacio facility including the regional warehouse (“centro de acopio” or collection center) and administrative offices. The coop runs an on-site roastery and cafe, which aims to bridge the gap between local production and consumption as well as educate producers about coffee quality.  I watch as the coop members from surrounding areas come to drop off their parchment. The beans are weighed, sampled, and taken behind a counter for green analysis which will determine the payout farmers receive at the adjacent payment office. It’s a busy atmosphere and seeing all the departments makes me appreciate the complexity of running a coop. APROCASSI has five main social initiatives including women’s empowerment and mental health. The coop recognized the need for mental health education and support among its members and acknowledges that financial stress is a major factor. Their initiative to address mental health head-on is unusual for a coop. It is more common for coops to structure formal programs around related topics like physical health and financial education but this is a big step toward destigmatizing conversations about mental health among members. Other projects are also in the works, like beekeeping and honey liquor (hidromiel) production as additional streams of income. We have the chance to see the shiny new on-site distillery where the honey liquor is bottled and do a tasting.

Lauren and Alex with APROCASSI team

Later, we visit the farm and home of Nelvir who resides half an hour outside town. We get a tour of the growing areas on the mountaintop. Between rows of coffee trees are native plants, sugarcane, banana trees and roaming fowl. As a pick-me-up our hosts cut off a chunk of fresh sugar cane to enjoy on the walk. Carrots, cabbage, peppers and the like are grown in a beautiful vegetable garden on the property. Some of the coop’s main varietals are represented: typica, marsellesa and catimor to name a few

Day 3: First stop of the day is the Cenfrocafe dry mill with our hosts from APROCASSI, that contracts the milling services for their coffees. Dry mills receive parchment (beans separated from the cherry that have undergone processing and are dried out to acceptable moisture levels) and perform the final steps of additional drying, dehusking, sorting and finally bagging and sealing for export. The dry mills also perform quality control evaluations and have their own cupping lab to make sure each lot is sound before it leaves the mill. I’ll come to learn that security is tight at the processing centers. The security guard at the gate checks the car, verifies our appointment and retains our passports for the duration of our visit. Strict rules are posted: no jewelry, no perfume, no odorous material, no food, etc.

The on-site operations manager, Wendy, walks us through each step of the service they provide from receipt to final bagging. Wendy is the daughter of a coffee farmer and looks like she could run the mill with her eyes closed. One moment she’s ushering us through the machines and next she’s standing on 20ft of stacked coffee directing her team on how to move product with an enormous forklift. Away from the whirring of the machines is the on-site cupping lab where lot samples are graded and flagged for quality concerns. Wendy’s colleague Bryan, who in contrast is quiet and reserved, runs this department and discusses the importance of reporting any quality concerns before the coffee can be cleared.

That afternoon, we start off for the coop’s Jaen location. All around the city we see tarps on the roadside with parchment set out to dry and even some beans on the sidewalk for one last chance to zap moisture out to meet acceptable moisture content levels and garner a higher price. Here in Jaen, APROCASSI’s larger warehouse collects parchment and their quality control team, made up by Ulises and Anali cup each incoming lot to build lots and filter out any defects so they do not go out for export. Members transport the parchment in trucks and the more abundant mototaxi. We get the chance to cup through a couple dozen lots with the team. The freshness of the beans is apparent in the cup and I learn that ‘algorrobina’ (black carob syrup) is a popular tasting note here.

SPOT + Afloat green coffees from APROCASSI:

• 34021 PERU FT-FLO/USA ORGANIC APROCASSI SPOT
• 34020 PERU FT-FLO/USA ORGANIC APROCASSI SPOT
• 34022 PERU FT-FLO/USA ORGANIC APROCASSI ETA: Oct 31, 2024
• 34025 PERU ORGANIC APROCASSI ETA: Oct 31, 2024
• 34643 PERU ORGANIC APROCASSI ETA: Oct 23, 2024
• 34026 PERU ORGANIC APROCASSI ETA: Nov 11, 2024
• 34645 PERU ORGANIC APROCASSI ETA: Nov 11, 2024
• 34644 PERU ORGANIC APROCASSI NATURAL ETA: Oct 23, 2024
• 34646 PERU ORGANIC APROCASSI NATURAL ETA: Nov 11, 2024

Day 4: The first Friday of our visit is marked by the beginning of national ‘fiestas patrias’ or Independence Day. Cumbia beats play loudly in the city center but we are off to the mountains.

Today we meet with Selva Andina coop. The director, Roman, whom Alex has known for nearly 20 years takes us by their new facility. The large warehouse is collecting parchment which is coming in fast as members look forward to getting some cash for the holiday. Since Alex’s last visit, the coop has constructed a gleaming, modern office. The team shares that they built dorms where members can stay overnight. Many producers and families live a few hours away and a day trip to drop off coffee and do errands and shopping in Jaen makes for an exhausting day.

SPOT coffees from Selva Andina:

• 34132 PERU ORGANIC SELVA ANDINA
• 34826 PERU FT-USA ORGANIC SELVA ANDINA
• 34131 PERU ORGANIC SELVA ANDINA

Afloat green beans:

• 34129 PERU FT-USA ORGANIC SELVA ANDINA ETA: Oct 20, 2024
• 35030 PERU FT-USA ORGANIC SELVA ANDINA ETA: Nov 11, 2024
• 35033 PERU FT-USA ORGANIC SELVA ANDINA ETA: Nov 11, 2024
• 35034 PERU FT-USA ORGANIC SELVA ANDINA ETA: Nov 11, 2024
• 35031 PERU ORGANIC SELVA ANDINA ETA: Nov 11, 2024
• 35032 PERU ORGANIC SELVA ANDINA ETA: Nov 11, 2024
• 35035 PERU ORGANIC SELVA ANDINA ETA: Nov 11, 2024
• 35036 PERU ORGANIC SELVA ANDINA ETA: Nov 11, 2024

We head to a small community of members two hours outside Jaen called “Los Milagros” (The Miracles”). Here we get to meet and share a meal with some dozen individual farmers at the family home of Maribel and her father. Afterwards, we go on a short walk through the parcel where the group operates a collective wet mill. Next, uphill through the coffee to get a better view of the neighboring mountains and other small communities dotted across the valley. Some trees are planted on impossibly steep slopes near uncomfortably high drop-offs…and we’re still quite far from the other parcels higher up the mountain. At the lookout point everything is put into perspective. We better see just how high up we are, how vast the valley truly is and how remarkable the residents of Los Milagros are.

Day 5: On Saturday, we meet with Javier from Sol y Cafe. He and Alex have also known each other for about two decades. We even dug up an old photo of the two in Jaen in the early 2000s. From the coop’s city central location covered in green tiles reminiscent of The Crown, we drive to the edge of the city to a large multi-use complex occupied by the coop. The number of projects inside is fascinating – a fish farm, coffee nursery, livestock pens and fertilizer formulation to name a few. Farmers bring parchment here an open space that doubles as a drying area and soccer field for inter-coop matches. A small corner of the area is for drying cacao, – a  new project that is ramping up and  prized by chocolatiers around the world. There is also an on-site school for members’ children – complete with coffee cupping for the kids which they say is a hit! Javier explains these types of initiatives are funded by Fair Trade premiums.

In the afternoon, we head back to the coop’s offices to check out the coffee receipt and sampling process followed by a visit to the on-site dental and medical services. Here members can schedule their appointments for days they’ll be in town. The dentist is one of the member’s daughters. At the medical office, the doctor on call talks with us and we learn one of the most common concerns among patients are gastro-intestinal issues caused by untreated water in production zones.

Next, we get a look at the coop’s new database which preserves producer anonymity to prevent any bias during grading and cupping.

Finally, we cup with the Sol y Cafe QC and commercial teams and share lunch at their downtown cafe location. Local cafes run by coops are a growing trend here in Jaen, showcasing what the region does best with the intention of growing internal consumption.

Day 7: Lastly, we meet up with APROCCURMA, a coop from whom we purchase ‘Cafe de Mujer’ coffee produced by a women’s subgroup. From Jaen, we drive a couple hours southeast to visit the producers of this coffee. As we start making our way up the mountain we pass a pair of public guards armed with rifles. We are in peak harvest time and farmers returning from the city are carrying large amounts of cash. Nearly all coops mentioned that while other forms of payment are often available (bank transfer, etc.), cash is almost always preferred.

We reach our destination by pulling into the village of “Nueva York”(New York), named after an American Jesuit traveling the region many years back. Dozens of the women, their kids and partners have come to meet us and share lunch with us in the large community building on the village square, complete with music and dancing.

Afterwards, two cornerstone members, Deily and Marta, show us their individual parcels. We see an abundance of red cherries as we snake up the mountain roads. The lower parcels are nearly done for the year while trees at higher altitudes are still abundant with fruit .In our conversation with Deily, we asked if shes’s a coop delegate and her response was “Not yet, but I’m going to empower myself!”

Day 8: Our next day in the region starts off with a tour of another APROCCURMA member’s parcel . Our hosts explain that individual farmers often come together to help harvest each producer’s parcel one at a time until they’re all done. The plots and volume are individual but everything else is a collaborative effort. Some producers exchange labor while others pay cash to helpers. Next, we visited a new project the women started with public grants – a fish farm for trout production. The members opt in to tending to the various cement tanks that make up the ‘piscigranja’ or fish farm, in return for the full grown trout.

Day 9: In the morning we stop by the coop’s proprietary drying beds where members can set parchment out while in town to reach target moisture levels. Next, we visit another dry mill, HVC Exportaciones, where Cafe de Mujer is being cleaned, milled and getting bagged up for export.

We make one final stop back in Jaen to meet with APROCCURMA’s quality control team (names). In a cupping lab above their Jaen warehouse, coffees are sampled and designated for specific lots based on the cup profile. The cupping lab is the smallest of the  We cup a full table with the team, including samples destined for our lots. We chat about characteristics that are desirable in the markets we serve, trends that we see back home and our personal tastes.

Now, we load up the truck to head back through the mountains to Piura. As I brace myself for the trip back through the mountains, our host tells us we need to get past ‘el cuello’ or ‘the neck’ – the highest and most dangerous portion as fog often rolls in, obstructing the view of the road. Luckily we have clear conditions all the way as we make our way down to the hills and sandy flats near the coast. Along the way, we pass trucks of various sizes full of coffee and other exportable products headed to the coast.

Day 10: Our last day in Peru is a sharp contrast from the rest of the trip as we’re now in the coastal city of Piura to visit a terminal at the Port of Paita, where Cafe de Mujer and many other Peruvian coffees depart for Royal’s warehouses each year. Like the processing plants, security is fully enforced and taken very seriously. Accompanied by the commercial manager at APROCCURMA and the commercial manager of the terminal, we suit up in our safety gear and turn in our passports. The vast majority of product moving through this terminal is coffee. On one end of the space, trucks from production zones line up waiting to unload. On the other, containers are staged for loading and to be transported to the next holding zone before departure.

SPOT coffees from APROCCURMA:

• 34125 PERU FT-FLO/USA ORGANIC CAFE DE MUJER APROCCURMA
• 34122 PERU FT-FLO/USA ORGANIC CAFE DE MUJER APROCCURMA SPOT SEAFORTH
• 34123 PERU FT-FLO/USA ORGANIC CAFE DE MUJER APROCCURMA
• 34609 PERU ORGANIC CAFE DE MUJER APROCCURMA
• 34121 PERU FT-FLO/USA ORGANIC CAFE DE MUJER APROCCURMA SPOT COSEATAC

Our visit has been scheduled when a truck of Cafe de Mujer is unloaded into a staged container.

Under the watchful eye of the compliance analyst, the container is inspected and then lined with craft paper on all six sides. Next, the coffee is systematically pulled from the truck, bag by bag and stacked in uniform rows. The personnel are extremely detail-oriented and there is no doubt it’s a well-run terminal.

The container will be sealed and loaded for its nearly two-month journey to Oakland.

We’ll see it again on the cupping table and it’ll be in roasteries and cafes across the country this fall.