Key origin info:

Producer: Various small growers based around the Ortega municipality, members of the Cafe Agrario association
Processed at: each producer’s own facility

Region: Ortega, Tolima, Colombia
Altitude: 1700 - 2100 masl

Variety: Field blends of Caturra, Typica, Castillo, Tabi & Bourbon
Process: De-pulped, fermented & washed, dried on patios, roofs and raised beds

Exporter: Siruma Coffee | Importer: Falcon Speciality

Cup profile: Syrupy body, red grapes & brown sugar

More about this coffee and the Cafe Agrario Association:

This lot is a regional selection of coffees produced by members of the Cafe. Agrario association based in the municipality of Ortega, within the Tolima region. While the department is certainly marked by the guerrilla conflict, it is also a region of lush landscapes with outstanding coffee quality potential. The Cafe Agrario association is formed by around 35 member families who work hard to improve their coffee and livelihoods. Having recently pivoted toward the speciality coffee market, and with support from our export partner Siruma, the group has significantly improved its organisation as well as coffee quality. Now producing truly outstanding regional lots such as this one as well as single farm micro-lots and even some rare varieties.

As Siruma explain:

This association was initially set up with a political purpose and had a leader with roots in the guerrilla conflict that Tolima was known for in previous years. As such, the association didn’t have any intentions to look for commercial activities or seek help from the government or other entities that work to help growers improve coffee yields and/or quality. Initially this did not pose any problems for its members, but as time passed by and more associations started to form in the region Cafe Agrario’s member understood such associations were built to benefit their members by assessing these kinds of help.

After 6 years Cafe Agrario changed its leader and its course and started to receive help from NGOs and other entities. The progress of the association and the coffee growers regarding quality and quantity was huge. As a consequence, the leader sought to increase sales exponentially and started to sell the members’ coffee on credit. Unfortunately, sales were made to companies that were were insolvent and couldn’t make their payments which resulted in the coffee growers’ not receiving their payments for coffee they had delivered.

Even though all the 35 families that are part of this association suffered hardship as a consequences of these failed sales, the growers continued to produce coffee - striving to find new ways to add value to their product. They have pivoted to specialty coffee, looking to increase their income by producing better quality coffee. And though there is certainly potential for high quality production, there is need to improve knowledge and knowhow of the processes needed to produce coffee exportable within the speciality market. And this is where Siruma can help. Not only by providing support through their sustainability and agronomy team but also by purchasing their coffee and being their direct link to the said quality focused market.

The association has now been working with Siruma for 2.5 years and their progress has been significant, where both the coffee quality and the logistical and organisational skills of the group have seen incredible development. Furthermore, the association’s insufficient infrastructure and knowledge on quality analysis of their coffees meant that they weren’t fully aware of the value of their product and accepted base prices from their buyers even though when appropriately assessed their coffee had the potential to benefit from a much higher price within the marketplace. With Siruma's help they now have the capacity to do the proper physical analysis of their coffee and now know the different varieties their farms have in order to process separately and sell sought after single variety lots.