MARONA ZAMORA [2022]

CHITO BLEND REF#5

$375.00

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Arrived April 3rd, 2023 in Calgary Warehouse.

Forward has purchased 2 x 25kg boxes of Hacienda La Papaya Washed Typica, Chito Blend / Marona Zamora.

One (1) box has been booked by Epoch Chemistry in Moncton, New Brunswick.

The below write up is the work and effort of Juan Peña and his team at CafExporto. Fully provided by them.

Hacienda La Papaya is owned and operated by Juan Peña, one of Ecuador's most famous specialty coffee producers. He has been recognized for many top producer awards in Ecuador and throughout the World. His coffee has also been utilized in many Barista Competitions.

CafExporto is owned and managed by Juan Peña, voted as Notable Producer by Sprudgie in 2021 and the prior two years.  CafExporto works with severl farms (Family Farms) in Ecuador to grow and process specialty coffee.  For all beans exported, CafExporto manages all dry mill, quality controll, packing and exporting activities. CafExporto, under the watchful eye of Juan Peña, is known for it’s strict standards for quality control.  Two agronomists with masters degrees (including Juan) inspect every step of CafExporto’s activities along to way to the point the coffee leaves the warehouse in Cuenca, Ecuador. In the past, CafExporto’s offerings have always included coffees with high scores of 87+ points and above. 

Aditionally, coffee from Juan’s farm, Hacienda la Papaya, has been used many times by baristas to place in the top three of the most important international barista contests.

In 2021, CafExporto undertook a new effort to find quality source of a 85/6+ point coffee.  Since CafExporto had not previously offered a coffee of this type, the Company set out to locate sources.

CafExporto visited many communites in coffee producing sectors to find coffee suitable for this project. The vast majority of coffee grown in Ecuador is on farms between one and two hectors and collected by community organizers and then sold on the national (Ecuadorian) maket.  Farms generally plant many other trees such as bananas. There are no options for the producers to sell thier coffee to other buyers – it is a rather closed system that does not reward the producer for quality.

Juan origionally identified six communities with potential to sell coffee, of these six communites, four qualified for producing a quality of coffee and for having a strong interest in improving through a relationship with CafExporto.  These communities are Morona Santiago, Limon Indanza, Morona Santiago, Taisha, Zamora Chinchipe, Chito, and Azuay, Santa Isabel. These communities span in location across southern Ecuador and each represent flavors distict to thier region. 

A great majority of these farms are operated by women and have never had the opportunity to sell thier coffee through a real market system. 

 Chito Community, Zamora Chinchipe Province, Ecuador – 1543 MASL

View photos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/JT4yFsjDhoi426ub7

Eighty percent of this blend is comprised of coffee from this community. Cosmel Merino represents the community of coffee producers in Chito, Zamora Chinchipe (1543 ASL) which is located in extreme southeast Ecuador, adjacent to the Peruvian border. The farms in this area are owned by families, with 70% of them led by the male of the household & the other 30% by the female. The average size per farm is 4 acres.  

Currently there are 55 coffee producers in the community, most of whom are very poor and live virtually off the land they cultivate. To date, they have not had a responsive market for thier coffee which has been sold only in Ecuador’s national maket. This is one of the several communities that Cafexporto “found” during the 2021 harvest.  CafExporto is making an investment of giving seeds of new varieties (typica mejorada & sidra) and introducing fertalization and better growing prctices to poor communities with potential of growing excellent coffee.

Chito is a highly productive zone with a long history of coffee grown in the area.  This sector produces approximately 1.5 million pounds of coffee a year. With the recent, new plantings this zone expects to produce an additional half a million pounds in three years. Due to the favorable climate, Chito expects to produce good quantites of specialty coffee in the future and to use CafExporto to help establish a market.

Community of Limon Indanza – Morona Santiago Province – Ecuador – 1,400 MASL

See photos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/USCmR5cqcDF8g7DG8

These coffee producers are located in San Miguel de Cochay, Limon Indanza, Morona Santiago province at about 1300-1500 MASL.  The farms are approximately 2 acres each.

William Leon, who manages the Cummunity’s coffee activities, has lived in Limon Indanza for 17 years.  He has a masters degree in agronomy and has been working as a coffee adviser in San Miguel de Cochay for the past 6 years.

Currently his role is to advise an agro-productive association of coffee producers called “Nuevos Horizontes”.  William has been working hard with the group trying to change their mentality and advise them in ways to maximize their levels of production. The variety they currently grow is called “Red Catucai”.

Despite not fertilizing or weeding as much as recommended, last year, William entered four coffee samples into a competition.  In November 2020 all four samples placed in the top 10 best coffees in Ecuador.  In fact, one of samples won 1st place in the competition.  

William met Juan Peña, the owner of CaféExporto in July of 2021, through a mutual friend.  William was interested in evaluating the communities’ current systems with the purpose of changing the communities’ perspective on how to enter the international coffee market.  Since then, the community has learned that the international market does not seek the variety of coffee they were previously growing, as it is too commonly found throughout the world.  With this new insight, the Community plans to grow the varieties that CafeExporto provides (Geisha, Typica mejorada and Sidra) on their land and to gain more experience growing these varieties.

In the past, the communities have not had access to someone with experience and knowledge of coffee.  Working with CafExporto gives the producers in the community access to growing and processing infirmation that will improve the quality and yields of thier plants. 

The culture in these remote communites can be an issue. People within the communities can be apathetic regarding new projects and ideas, especially when it comes to investing capital.  The community is accustomed to receiving free seeds from the government or NGOS.  Therefore, it has been challenging to convince these producers to change their ways.  It is especially challenging to convince them to invest in better seeds that will yield them better. So far, there are 39 producers interested in working with the new varieties of plants.

Farms are typically owned by families of the communities, and in this case, women oversee coffee growing. Women traditionally have the experience and the knowledge of planting and harvesting crops.  The time from planting to harvesting coffee is normally 3 years. The harvest time is considered normal and starts in March.  

Macus Comunity - Morona Santiago Province – Ecuador – 1,600 MASL

View photos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/kk3JTpnHuZLSJ6oG8

This productive initiative was born thrugh an initial investment from Fundación Atasim whose goal through this project is to raise, produce, and provide quality of life, through the healthy and accessible supply of organic and quality products and services that empower small coffee producers in the Ecuadorian province of Morona Santiago. Fundación Atasim supports community development since 2006 with the help of various international cooperation organizations. It gives preference to the empowerment of mothers and therefore to the development of children.

This community, located in Morona Santiago Province and is currently working with around 40 producers.  They expect this to grow to 80 producers in the near future. 

The community tells us that business has improved a lot since they started working with CafeExporto due to the advice received about post harvesting processes. 

Most of the producers’ farms average in size of 2 acres and are at an average altitude between 800 – 1600 MASL

Families (Indegenous Shuar) are the ones that manage the farms. Work is divided up by gender. Women would do the harvest part and men the weeding.

Their plan for the future (3 years approx.) is to increase the number of producers to about 80 total coffee producers from the towns San Isidro, 9 de Octubre and Zuñac. They are also working with CafeExporto to recieve quality seeds of Typicas mejorados, Sidras.

They have been working with CafeExporto starting in 2021 and met because the community was looking for improvement in the quality of their coffee and prices. To date, the processes and technologe that CafExporto has shared with these farmes has been extremely positive

Community of Santa Isabel -  Azuay Province – Ecuador – 1700 MASL

Find photos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/kkcYerVCAeL1G69y5

The community of Santa Isabel has approximately 100 producers of which, 25 are active on a full-time basis.  In the community there is a coffee association named “Guayara”.  This association encompasses about 15 producers in total.  The remainder of the producers independently harvest and collect their own coffee.  The average size farm in the area is 2 acres and each farm grows about 3000 plants.  The farms in this area are managed by families and the male head of household is usually in charge of the business.

The main goal of coffee production here has always been & continues to be exportation.  The growers in the area feel their coffee in not as competitive on the international level as they would like, so they plan to change their methods and expand the number of plants they currently grow.

CafeExporto has been instrumental helping them achieve better sales volume & success with exportation.  It is a mutually beneficial relationship which has benefitted both sides.   

Tastify Notes:  Click Here: https://tastify.com/sample_reports/fa2da2d4-23f7-437e-82e0-3239f39fd1b4

Dry Mill Process - CafExporto

The harvest of each of the farms arrives each year in the months of September, October and November from different parts of Ecuador to the Cafexporto laboratory and warehouse. Each one of the bags when entering the warehouses are coded with a name and reference number.

During admission, small quantities are taken as samples of each of the references to analyze them in the Cafexporto laboratory before starting the dry processing process.

Each of the parchment coffees references goes through the machine production line (threshing, size classification, cleaning and visual classification).

After going through the visual classification, the physical quality of the beans is analyzed before starting to pack in the boxes of Cafexporto.

During the packaging of boxes, a small amount of sample is taken for a new sensory quality control analysis in the Cafexporto laboratory prior to shipment.

If everything continues, based on Cafexporto's control, the boxes with green coffee are ready to be sent to different roasters around the world.

Cafexporto is aware that each part of the dry processing process is of vital importance for the producer, exporter and roaster. We guarantee traceability and continuous quality control from the time the bags enter the warehouses until the final dispatch of green coffee.


Process: Washed Typica
Price per kilogram paid by Forward: 
$9.35/kg USD FOB
Total kilos purchased: 50kg (2 x 25kg Box) 
Harvest date: August-September 2022
Fermentation: Traditional fully washed, mixed from different regions
Drying time: 11 days in a controlled temperature drying room
Drying temperature: 22°C Max. - 8°C Min.  
Altitude: 2000 masl
Region: Saraguro, Loja, Ecuador