Getting to the Alianza cupping lab to meet with the team at Fairfield Trading is always an adventure. Landing at the airport in Pasto often takes a few attempts by pilots. They will soon only have one flight a day due to the difficulty of landing in the afternoons, when the thermal channels make us all dig our nails into the pleather armrests. An hour drive into the mountains from Pasto and we arrive in Buesaquito.
Greeted by familiar faces, Johnny Otoya sits on a stoop outside the purchase point. “ ¡Mi Cliente!” He yells as we shuffle out of the car. I show him a photo and video of his other client, a roaster in San Francisco. I tell him that the green buyer is moving to the desert to paint, but that they will still buy his harvest this year. The company is committed to their relationship. He smiles.
The first evening we gathered around typical Colombian fare: rice, plantains and beef. We listen to the concerns about unseasonal weather patterns that were making post harvest processing difficult:
Lots of unseasonal rain in Acevedo, Huila and San Augustin
Unseasonal cold front sweeping through Acevedo
Naino has been unusually warm and dry, with drought causing a 30% reduction in yields
Tarqui was the least affected of the regions
30% reduction in yields across the country
There is inherent risk working in agriculture, and climate change is on everyone’s minds. We talk about the global landscape of a warmer planet. The second most biodiverse country on earth, and the third largest producer of coffee in the world, Colombian farmers have a lot to protect and preserve. Colombia’s agriculture is central to their economy, and some farmers have been anticipating these changes for over a decade. Alejandro tells us of a farmer he knows that purchased land higher in altitude 13 years ago because he observed a trend of warming and inconsistent precipitation.
Not everyone can be so savvy, though. We publish our pricing and chat with our partners extensively about what prices are needed to sustain the growers. Still, with the C-Market at a devastating low, and yields down 30%, most smallholders are struggling.
Alejandro’s phone rings and we all scramble to alert him. It’s Raul (Astrid’s Medina’s husband) facetiming from Tolima. He was distributing free fertilizer on behalf of the FNC. The price of fertilizer is a burden for most, so the FNC distributes to farmers to prevent their soil from starving. Cash flow issues often result in famers skipping fertilizer altogether. In these cases, quality suffers the following year. Lower quality, lower scores. That cycle is dangerous.
The conversation turns to Esnaider, the promising coffee farmer that has become famous in San Augustin. He takes meticulous notes, plays with different fermentation vessels, and has been planning his farm’s approach after a year of travel to see what other top producers do to ensure success.
“I want to talk about experimental processing,” he says. “Do you like natural coffees?”
I tell him I’ve cupped a lot of naturals, and there are clean, excellent ones that you can taste the regional character through the process, and others that are less to be desired. I turn the question to him. He shakes his head and blushes, “I don’t like them.”
He tells me that he’s concerned about the recent demand and request from importers. He says there’s great risk in asking farmers to process natural or experimental coffees. For a farmer who has only worked with washed techniques, the first few years of trials can be devastating. There are whispers at the table of a large importer that expressed strong interest in naturals in the region, and then left many farmers sitting on product because they didn’t end up purchasing them.
As someone in trade, I see both sides. If the market demands natural coffees, we should find farmers that are experienced in natural processing. In some countries, like Ethiopia and Brazil, natural processing is a dialed in science. In Colombia, the farmers we have been working with for years specialize in clean washed coffees.
“Our coffees taste like Colombia,” they say. “Those, are funk.” They all laugh and raise their glass. I’m having flashbacks of tastings in 2010 where it was stated “as fact” that washed coffees are the true expression of terroir. This conversation happened at so many cupping tables in places that don’t produce coffee. Where it may be their career, but not their life or their product or their legacy. For farmers to express these opinions about flavor is really powerful. Markets are loud with their opinions, but farmers deserve this dialogue too.
At the end of the day, if we’re going ask a farmer to do anything out of the ordinary, we need to consider who is taking on the risk of this request. Often, established, well off farms can take on projects and absorb the risk, but small holder farmers don’t have such a luxury. Esnaider and his comrades agree - when requesting experimentation, we should have a commitment to buy the coffee regardless of the outcome.
A risk for a risk.
Colleen King, Roaster & Farmer Relationships (U.S.A.)