Guatemala is a country in Central America that has been producing coffee since the mid-1700s. The rich volcanic soil and high rainfall create optimal growing conditions for coffee plantations. The coffee industry began to gain momentum there during the 1850s as the government started incentivising production and exporting coffee beans.
In 2018, coffee production had become such an important part of the economy that it was officially named “An Intangible Heritage of the Guatemalan nation.” Today, Guatemala is the 10th biggest exporter of coffee in the world. Our sourcing partner, Union Hand Roasted, currently works with two partners to source Arabica beans for our Signature Blend.
Esquipulas Cooperative
Esquipulas is a cooperative in the Huehuetanango area that we have been partnering with since 2009. The cooperative works with smallholder farms under five hectares and assists these farmers by cupping and marketing the coffee, and providing technical assistance and training.
In Guatemala, especially in rural regions, traditional gender roles are still quite prevalent. Women take care of domestic duties, while the men are the breadwinners. A big issue with this is that there has been a massive migration of Guatemalan men to the USA in search of better work opportunities in the last few decades. The wives of these men are then left behind to look after the farms in their husband’s absence.
Unfortunately, many of the men who migrate soon stop sending money or communication back to their families in Guatemala and eventually disappear completely, leaving their wives to run the farms themselves. These women then have to learn about coffee production, maintain their farms and get their beans to the market.
Esquipulas, led by female general manager Iliana Martínez, was originally created as a loans and savings cooperative for the coffee producers in the area. Over the years their scope has developed and expanded to include a range of other services to their members. Now one of the focuses of the cooperative is to assist and support its female members and promote the idea that women can be entrepreneurs. The cooperative has assisted these women with getting fair prices for their beans and consulted on their farms to ensure they produce a maximum output of products.
La Candelaria Estate
We also work with La Candelaria, located on the outskirts of Antigua, Guatemala. La Candelaria is not a cooperative but an Estate of over 100 hectares of coffee. The farm has its own wet mill and dry mill, and employs permanent workers such as agronomists, administration, and farm workers. Due to the large volume of coffee produced on the estate, hundreds of pickers are also hired during the harvesting season.
As we mentioned previously, in many of the rural areas of Guatemala there has been a mass migration of people to the USA. This means it has become increasingly difficult to find manual labourers in the area to help on the farm or pick the cherries during harvesting season.
To overcome this, up to 350 pickers from other outlying areas come to work on the farm, often with their families in tow. These workers typically stay on the farm for several weeks, living in provided accommodations throughout the coffee harvest.
Union Hand Roasted has had a lot of involvement in improving the living situations on the farm ensuring there are comfortable sleeping quarters, as well as sanitation and cooking facilities. Since 2018, La Candelaria has been working with a local NGO, to provide education and arts and crafts on the farms for children who are living there. On top of this, La Candelaria has also been constructing playgrounds. These changes have been a massive step forward in ensuring children have a better stay during the harvesting season.
Type Of Farming
The farms we source from use a very traditional way of managing their coffee plantations as they have limited resources and little access to high-end technology. Farmers need to be very innovative in how they farm, making the most of what they have and ensuring limited waste and maximum production. In rural villages, it’s common to see rooftops covered with coffee beans, an ingenious way for farmers to utilise every inch of available space and closely monitor their crops.
These days “sustainable” and “regenerative” farming have become popular buzzwords in the industry, but the Guatemalan coffee producers we work with have been farming in this way for years. Most farmers make use of sustainable and regenerative practices, like composting, agroforestry and natural fertilisation that benefit their farms and also have a positive impact on the environment.
Guatemalan Coffee Beans At Seattle Coffee Company
While Guatemala is a major player in the global coffee industry, the past few decades have proven difficult for coffee farmers to compete with market prices. From labour shortages due to mass migration, as well as climate change causing irregular weather patterns that affect crops, and the volatility of coffee prices on the global market – coffee farmers often struggle to make a profit.
Each year we ship seven containers of coffee beans from Guatemala to our roastery in Muizenberg. The volume we have been able to order has helped the cooperatives maintain a steady flow of income and enabled them to help many more smallholder farms in their cooperative.
As more and more people immigrate to the USA each year, the coffee industry has become an uncertain future for many farmers so it’s important for us to support independent farmers and provide them with a market they can rely on.