Peru

One of our newest farming projects is in the heart of Peru. At around 800m altitude, in the provincial town of Jaén, the “Cooperativa de Servicios Multiples Jesus Solidario Ltda” grows and sells coffee. Our purchasing team contacted the cooperative back in 2017 after the contact was established through Sister Karina from Zwettl. She had been working in Peru for many years. We visited the South American country together with Roberto Carlos Quispe Guerrero, our local partner in Peru. In 2019 we received the first delivery of raw coffee for our Viennese Temptation Coffee range. Directly trade enables farmers to add value to their products directly from their farms.

Hand-picked coffee

The cooperative consists of around 60 farmers who produce organic coffee on around 250 hectares in the region around Jaén. The Caturra and Catimor coffee bean varieties grow in the middle of the Peruvian jungle between banana and papaya trees at 1,600 to 1,800 m altitude. The plants are lovingly cared for and ripe coffee cherries are harvested by hand. The ongoing harvest, ‘picking’ is from June to September.

Our farming partners know their trade and understand that hygiene is important in the plantations and for the drying process in order to produce good coffee. Due to the high amount of precipitation in the region, air drying is usually not enough to guarantee good quality coffee. Therefore, the cooperative uses an environmentally friendly solar drying system.

The bean’s journey

Once the beans are dried, they make their way to Austria. The cooperative’s farmers don’t have much experience in international trade. SONNENTOR provides support in terms of know-how, administration and logistics. Our fair pricing policy offers farmers a constant income stream from coffee sales and prospects for their future in farming.

Coffee prices around the world are usually based on the stock market. SONNENTOR always pays a fixed price for coffee, even if the world market price drops. This is how we prove that trade can benefit everyone.