El Carmen Annual Meeting 2018
It all began in 2016…
When producers in the region of Pitalito, Huila, came together to discuss the issues that faced them as individual coffee producers. Their challenges were the same; selling coffee into an unstable market, and inclement rains that dramatically reduced the potential quality (and therefore return) of the crop.
The rains themselves
Several unexpected shifts in weather throughout Colombia over the past two years have seen droughts rolling into rains, completely destroying harvest potential and income for producing families around the country.
These climatic changes have meant that farmers in the region have missed out on the important value-adding steps of processing their coffees at the farm, having to resort to wet selling their coffees to a somewhat local intermediary. This is because prolonged rainfalls have rendered the farmer’s own drying facilities unsuitable for the work needed. Time is also of the essence when moving through the initial steps of the coffee’s processing, with potential quality and thus price degrading as time moves forward.
One feature of El Carmen which helps to tackle this problem is the construction of additional drying beds in the centre of town. Colombian producers for the most part process their coffee until the parchment stage, equipment for which is expensive to replace. Upkeep is an expense not feasible for many so that affected by enivronmental changes are left to the elements, which nowhere else to dry their harvests. Money and effort drain away, as the only option is to wet-sell to capture any return. farmers can recapture recently lost steps of production, and in turn, command a sustainable guaranteed price for the coffee they produce.