88.18

Overview:

Rafael Silva, is the owner of Llano Grande that´s a farm of approximately three hectares and at an altitude of 1,450 meters above sea level. It is located at the Apaneca-Ilamatepec Mountain Range. Due to the low prices in the coffee market in the mid 80’s, it was difficult for Rafael to keep jobs for our permanent workers in the farms. This situation compelled him to buy Llano Grande, a small farm in the outskirts of Apaneca, and diversify our cultivar to floriculture. They would be opening many jobs for the people of Apaneca whose life was agriculture and through this opportunity, would find a new way of sustainability for their families. He started building nurseries and the necessary infrastructure for this purpose. The climate was ideal for flowers so we started by producing twelve varieties and they worked a way to many more varieties as they gained experience through trial and error. At first him goal was the nurseries in the local market but as we went along and quality increased Rafael thought about the international market but unfortunately he was not competitive enough due to our limited production. Rafael tried with the poinsettia, which he imported the stems and produced it ourselves. The quality was impressive but it was a very expensive product and not having the support of the local nurseries, made it difficult for them to keep the production. The lack of water was another deterrent, which he has to buy, so it increased the costs, because rain water, which was recollected during the rainy season, was not enough. This brought us to the conclusion that we had to close the nurseries. By the year 2005 Rafael decided to close the nursery and plant coffee trees, so he started planting 1,800 Pacamara coffee trees. In 2006 planted 3,500 trees more, and next year many more. In 2008 we had our first harvest and in this last harvest 2009/2010 we discovered, with much pride that the harvest produced an excellent cup. They have reinstated many of their former workers back to the coffee production, which was one of our goals. Its altitude makes the crop mature slowly so recollection is between January and March. It is only shade coffee. Their ecological awareness allowed them to put in place innovative ways to produce organic matter for fertilization. They have a massive production of earthworms to process the coffee pulp to create “vermicompost” that we use to fertilize the trees. The farm has colonial practices to take care of the soil.

Other Statistics:

Location: Apaneca, Ahuachapan
Coffee varieties: Pacamara
Type of Shade: Ingas
Average Annual Rainfall: 2300
Average Temperature: 18°C average.
Type of Soil: Clay loam
Annual Production: 45 bag (60 kg)
Mill and company where lot was process: El Borbollon, S.A. de C.V.