This year our trip to Guatemala was an absolute adventure. We shouldered our backpacks with a clear objective: to find small producers in Huehuetenango who shared our vision of a long-term relationship. A fair relationship for both sides, where the quality of the product, as well as the relationship itself, provides opportunities for both the producer and the roaster.

The coffee market in Guatemala

The country has 125,000 families dedicated to coffee production, with 96.81% produced on small plots. Of this large portion, virtually all is hand-harvested and shade-grown. A perfect breeding ground for our objective to be viable.

Viable is not synonymous with simple. Guatemala is probably the country with the greatest difficulties when it comes to buying coffee directly from small producers, due to the swarm of intermediaries, cooperatives, second-tier associations, and a bureaucratic system that took us some time to understand. They are the ones who buy most of the small producers' harvest to resell it to exporters who control the sales channels, whether in Europe or their main market, the United States.

Direct dealings at the source with producers from Huehuetenango

So, the initial step was to find associations or cooperatives that brought together a number of producers, making our work easier to manage. We spent five days traveling through different municipalities in Huehuetenango and visiting producer groups before finally selecting Guaya'b as our first partner in the region. Guaya'b is a producers' association established in 1998, focused on coffee and honey production. Its name means "mutual aid" in the local Popti' Mayan language, still spoken in the region by the descendants of the Mayan culture.

Although they had only had one previous experience with a US specialty coffee buyer, we arrived at the perfect moment to select some lots using filters we specified, and we managed to find something unexpected: specialty organic coffee. Organic coffee is characterized by being produced without the use of chemicals, especially pesticides (against pests and fungi) and herbicides that control the growth of mountain grasses (commonly known as weeds). This type of coffee typically has a lower yield and lower quality.

Organic coffee in the region: an ideal starting point

To our surprise, the lots we tasted came from 22 different producers, all of whom produce traditional washed organic coffee. This provides a great foundation for experimentation with the nine selected producers and an ideal starting point for continuous improvement harvest after harvest, which we are committed to undertaking together as a mutually beneficial project.