Elvis Tineo Rafel | Peru

More about Elvis:

Elvis Reinerio Tineo Rafael is a second-generation coffee producer from the El Diamante area overlooking the city of Jaen in Cajamarca, Northen Peru.  Elvis and his family own around 12 hectares of land between them. Elvis himself owns and manages around 3 hectares, sitting between 1700 to 1900 masl. He is also the one focusing on processing and drying side of the production.

The land is planted mainly with with Bourbon, Caturra and Catuai varieties but more recently some new, rare varieties like Gesha and Centroamericano have also been added. The whole family work the land together, coordinating their picking, processing and drying and sharing their facilities. 

El Diamante is a coffee producing area closest to the city of Jaen, main city in the Cajamarca coffee region. We had the privilege of visiting Elvis and his family at their beautiful farm and found out more about their coffee journey. As Elvis explained, coffee farming has been in the family for a long time, they used to produce mostly commercial quality coffees which they sold at the local market. Recently, this was just about covering their production costs and didn't allow for any investments on the farm so they decided to change things around. Over the last few years Elvis has been learning and implementing improved harvesting and processing practices with some great results.

This is the fourth year of him and his family working with Falcon Speciality (our exporting and importing partner for Peru) and earning premiums appropriate for the quality of his coffee which allows him to make plans for the future, invest in further developments on the farm. As Elvis says: “There is still much more to improve,” and he has lots of plans for the future from constructing better drying facilities to establishing a demo plot for neighbours to learn from on a recently purchased parcel of land. We love his energy and determination and are proud to support him and bring you more of his delicious coffee.

We’re so pleased to welcome back Elvis’ coffee for the fifth year running and it is tasting as delicious as ever. This classic washed lot is extremely drinkable with sweet jammy body, it’s very well rounded with plenty of great fruit notes to lift it up.

About Falcon Peru:

Background on Peru and Por El Cambio project:

POR EL CAMBIO means FOR CHANGE. The project has been established in Cajamarca, Northern Peru by our importing partner Falcon Coffees in 2019.

As Falcon explain:

In Peru, like some other origins, coffee farmers are sensitive to market changes and often lack basic training and the incentive to produce higher qualities of coffee, as premiums often don’t materialise. For these reasons we decided we needed to change the way we buy coffee in Peru and work directly with producers, allowing us to control and improve upon existing quality and have full financial traceability. Ensuring these two factors would help us to pay higher prices for the coffees and to make sure that producers received a fair price for the coffee they delivered us, above the market price. In order to do this, we set up a warehouse in Jaen and started to buy in parchment directly from producers.

The vision was to work directly with small producers who aren't associated with or able to sell their coffee through local cooperatives. They represent 75% of producers in Northern Peru and are usually based in remote areas with little or no access to training and price premiums adequate to the quality of coffee they are able to produce. This can leave their income often dependant on local aggregators who buy their coffee at farm for cash before selling it on which results in the producers being paid very little and the potential and quality of their coffee being lost.

Falcon's team on the ground in Peru, have established relationships and now work with around 300 small producers who bring their coffee in parchment directly to their warehouse where individual lots are graded, yield calculated and assessed for quality. Producers are then paid on the same day according to a transparent system (based on cup score and yield) and receive premiums well above the local market price. Aside from gaining access to a fair market, producers are also able to receive training on farm management, good harvest and processing practices.