Guatemala
Country: Guatemala Guatemala
CODECH
Farm: CODECH
Concepción Huista
Region: Concepción Huista

Our Guatemalan coffee comes from the Concepción Huista region in the central highlands of Huehuetenango. Coffees from this area, including our organic green coffee, are among the best in Guatemala. The limestone mountains of the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes stretch across northwestern Guatemala at an altitude of up to 3,837 meters, and their mineral-rich soil provides the foundation for this exceptional coffee. It is cultivated at altitudes of 1,300 to 2,200 meters on approximately 350 hectares.

Concepción Huista is a municipality with approximately 20,000 inhabitants who primarily make their living from agriculture and forestry. Coffee cultivation plays a vital role and has been traditionally practiced in the region for over 100 years in mixed cultivation with other crops (e.g., bananas, citrus fruits, avocados, peaches, medlars, malanga, pumpkins, güisquil) under shade trees. Starting in 2012, coffee cultivation was gradually converted to certified organic farming. The coffee is then imported to Europe through the...DeLaSelva Rainforest Project.

Variety
Red Bourbon & Red Caturra
Height
1350 – 2190 m
Processing
fully washed
Screen
15 up
Harvest time
December – March
Harvest type
Selective pick

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We owe this exceptional coffee to the 407 smallholder farming families from indigenous communities who have joined together in a cooperative (approximately 30% women), which is further divided into three local cooperatives. The individual communities of Poptí, Mam, and Q'anjob'al united in 1998 under the umbrella organization CODECH (Coordinadora de Organizaciones de Desarrollo de Concepcion Huista) and have since been working together on certification and quality control, as well as on the processing and marketing of their organically grown green coffee.

The organic green coffee beans are hand-picked by family members in three harvests between December and April. Wet processing and drying of the coffee beans take place directly on the smallholder farmers' plots. After drying, the coffee farmers send samples of their coffee to CODECH. Following quality control and classification by CODECH, the coffee farmers receive sacks in which they transport the coffee beans to their local cooperative's warehouse. There, they are stored until shortly before being transported to Guatemala City for dry processing.

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