This post is about the second in a series of workshops for the growers in the Curibamba Coffee Project held June 27-28. For more info, see below for other links.
Prologue
After our visit to FInca El Dorado (see here,) we continued on to San Ramon. The day was late, and we barely made it before dark. Exhausted after so many days of traveling & all things coffee, we check into a new hostal to see how it will be. It’s priced right, and the internet seems to work, so we may have new digs for our trips to San Ramon. (Hostal Santa Domingo – S/.40 per night about $12.63 at this time.) Continue reading Curibamba Coffee Workshops June 2015→
One ongoing problem in Peru is illegal mining and logging. Many once virgin rainforest areas have been devastated by clear cutting. As the forest is cut, biodiversity diminishes dramatically and is accompanied by a loss in wildlife and also results in loss of air and water quality, not just in the immediate area, but throughout the entire watershed.
Part of a sustainable future for coffee farmers is recognizing that working with nature vs clear cutting accompanied by composting residual crop waste as opposed to burning is the best way to maintain soil stability (critical on the hillsides,) and preserve nutrients over the long term.
Here’s an update on some recent articles that I’ve seen on farming & coffee production in Peru. This year Peru is slowly climbing back from the coffee rust which decimated production in 2012. Even last year, coffee production was still less than half of 2011.
The dollar has risen considerable vs the Peruvian Sol (currently S./ 3.14 to $1 USD.) Export prices are down, so there should be a good market, but with coffee prices low, it will be a hard year for many & difficult to cover costs.
In the farming country in the south of the country there have been clashes between police and protesters over a proposed copper mine, meanwhile the government is providing fertilizer and aid in other areas.
Our coffee travels lead us to meet some of the most interesting and helpful people in the trade. Ron Cortez of the Cortez Coffee Company in Tempe, Arizona has an amazing story & Ron is extremely supportive of our work with Peruvian farmers. Here’s more about this true coffee hero. Continue reading Real People, Really Good Coffee – Ron Cortez, Cortez Coffee Company→
One casualty of the skyrocketing costs of housing in Lima is migration from the provinces. For many years, there had been a steady flow from the outlying areas to Lima. A new study shows that the trend has reversed & other areas outside of the capitol are now more attractive to migrants looking for economic growth & opportunity. Continue reading Migrating to Lima no longer attractive for many→
This past few days, we attended the “Event,” which is the Specialty Coffee of America Associations big trade show of the year. Thousands of coffee growers, importers, roasters & of course baristas and coffee aficionados joined together for a few days of great coffee, seminars, classes & coffee tastings. As they say, “Great coffee doesn’t just happen.”
While climate change hasn’t had an effect on many of the higher altitude banana growers in Peru, the torrential rains in other parts of the country have damaged many roads & flooded rivers, which can make transporting crops difficult.
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Here’s an excerpt of this weeks’ email newsletter:
Another month has flown by, and here we are in March already. We did however manage to get all of the materials for the solar coffee drying tents lined up, and they all have a waiting space in San Ramon for installation in May.
Meanwhile, we’re focused on the move. Just to bring you up to speed, our place in Lima is going to be needed by the owners, so we’ve decided to relocate home base in Peru to the cloud forest region of San Martin province and the tropical city of Tarapoto. Everything is lined up, we’re just waiting until the last possible moment to do the final wrap. It quite literally is a wrap, as we’ll be covering up everything that’s not in a box (and those too) in shrink wrap. Everything goes tomorrow!
