{"id":42670,"date":"2019-05-29T14:55:23","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T14:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:dev.cafeimports.com\/blog\/?p=42670"},"modified":"2019-05-29T15:07:24","modified_gmt":"2019-05-29T15:07:24","slug":"el-salvador-harvest-report-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/2019\/05\/29\/el-salvador-harvest-report-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"El Salvador Harvest Report 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.7″ src=”\/\/cdn.cafeimports.com\/images\/Cafe_Imports_El_Salvador_Harvest_Report-1-11.jpg” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”1 – Intro” _builder_version=”3.7″ text_font=”Raleway||||||||” text_font_size=”15px” text_orientation=”justified”]<\/p>\n

El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America, but its coffee has a big place in our hearts and in our sourcing schedule every year: Cafe Imports senior-green buyer Piero Cristiani hails from there and is based out of an office in-country when he\u2019s not traveling to other sources around the world. Piero\u2019s semi-permanent status on the ground in El Sal has allowed him to tap into lesser-known regions and to develop close and consistent relationships with smallholder producers; he has an uncanny ability to see not only what they need in order to succeed, but also to find pathways to that success by developing inventive buying models and quality-incentive projects that have proven to have great impact in the tight-knit coffee community.<\/div>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.7″ src=”\/\/cdn.cafeimports.com\/images\/Cafe_Imports_El_Salvador_Harvest_Report-1-6.jpg” \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.7″ src=”\/\/cdn.cafeimports.com\/images\/Cafe_Imports_El_Salvador_Harvest_Report-1-4.jpg” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”2. Focus” _builder_version=”3.7″ text_font=”Raleway||||||||” text_font_size=”15px” text_orientation=”justified”]<\/p>\n

While many other importers focus their El Salvador buys on the larger, mostly Bourbon-variety farms in and around Santa Ana, Piero has spent the majority of the past eight years on the smaller, more remote farming area of Chalatenango. In Chalate, as it\u2019s known locally, smallholder producers can yield as little as 15 quintals (roughly 1,500 pounds) of parchment coffee annually. After calculating the loss in milling, that equates to about nine exportable 69-kilo bags\u2014bags which previously were sold to intermediaries or to a local buyer at a lower price, with no traceability and no regard for the potential those high-quality lots had to earn more in the market.<\/div>\n

[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”2a. Focus” _builder_version=”3.7″ text_font=”Raleway||||||||” text_font_size=”15px” text_orientation=”justified”]<\/p>\n

One way Piero has arranged to create a more sustainable pricing structure is to buy coffee in parchment from farmers, after which Cafe Imports handles the sampling, milling, sorting, and arranging the final export. He thinks that his willingness and the ability to meet and compromise with producers this way is one of the things that gives Caf\u00e9 Imports the long-term advantage.<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”3. Piero” _builder_version=”3.7″ text_font=”Raleway||||||||” text_font_size=”15px” text_orientation=”justified”]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe pay higher prices, and we also pay for producers to wait for us to give them results, because that\u2019s how long it takes,\u201d he says, as opposed to the instant results (and lower prices) that come from selling to local traders. \u201cWe might have to go a whole week just to do the sampling from the farms, from the producers\u2019 warehouses\u2014sometimes from somebody\u2019s kitchen or bedroom. Then we have to prepare the samples\u2014could be 150 lots\u2014and then you have to send them [to the U.S. sensory analysis lab] via DHL. It takes about three days to get there, and then they\u2019re in the lab, [it can be] another week to cup\u2014overall it might take about four weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piero says that paying that going that extra mile, as well as paying the higher prices and making the investment in the producers\u2019 growth, has proved to be the key to forming year-after-year buying relationships.<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.7″ src=”\/\/cdn.cafeimports.com\/images\/Cafe_Imports_El_Salvador_Harvest_Report-1-10.jpg” \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.7″ src=”\/\/cdn.cafeimports.com\/images\/Cafe_Imports_El_Salvador_Harvest_Report-1-3.jpg” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”4. Chalatenango \/ Pequenos” _builder_version=”3.7″ text_font=”Raleway||||||||” text_font_size=”15px” text_orientation=”justified”]<\/p>\n

This year, to expand on those connections as well as to celebrate and reward the producers\u2019 incredible work, Piero and a team from Cafe Imports (including green-buyer\u2019s associate Alberto \u201cBeto\u201d Reyes, sourcing liaisons Sam Miller and Omar Herrera, and sensory analysis director Ian Fretheim) arranged and hosted the first-ever Chalatenango Best Cup<\/a> cupping competition and live auction in March.<\/p>\n

Encouraged by the success of 2018\u2019s Chalate Best Cup Discovery event held at SCA Expo in Seattle, Piero was sure there would be enough interest in the special varieties and exceptional quality of even the super-small lots from farmers like Jose Francisco Recinos, Antonio Rene Aguilar, and Jaime Guevara. Caf\u00e9 Imports invited some of our roaster clients who had previously purchased the 35-kilo\u00a0Peque\u00f1os\u00a0bags these very small lots are sold in, and 12 individual roasting companies were represented at the cupping tables and in the live auction.<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.7″ src=”\/\/cdn.cafeimports.com\/images\/chalatenangobestcup146.jpg” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”5. Quality” _builder_version=”3.7″ text_font=”Raleway||||||||” text_font_size=”15px” header_font=”Raleway||||||||” header_font_size=”25px” text_orientation=”justified”]<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coffees were really good, really high scores,\u201d Piero says of the top lots that were selected for live auction from a pool of around 300 samples.\u201d Sourcing liaison Sam chimes in: \u201cMultiple producers opted out of submitting lots to CoE [which took place in April] because they wanted to submit their lots to Best Cup,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The winning coffee was a 5-bag chop from Maria Julia Pleitez, from her farm Las Marias; it scored a whopping 89.4 points and was a Washed Pacamara. That\u2019s one of the other things that helps Chalate stand out: the delicious predominance of heirloom varieties like Pacas and Pacamara, even after the country\u2019s recent devastating experience with coffee-leaf rust, to which older cultivars are more susceptible.<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.7″ src=”\/\/cdn.cafeimports.com\/images\/Cafe_Imports_El_Salvador_Harvest_Report-1-9.jpg” max_width=”90%” \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.7″ src=”\/\/cdn.cafeimports.com\/images\/Pequenos-1.jpg” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”6. Pacamara \/ Bernadina” _builder_version=”3.7″ text_font=”Raleway||||||||” text_font_size=”15px” header_font=”Raleway||||||||” header_font_size=”25px” text_orientation=”justified”]<\/p>\n

Despite the vulnerability of those coffee types to diseases like rust, Piero says there are strong motivations for local farmers to renovate their farms but keep the integrity of their varieties. \u201cThe producers are very quality-minded, and Pacamara is like a national treasure of El Salvador,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have good waves for surfing, and we have Pacamara.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pacamara is a cultivar that originated in El Salvador and is a cross of a Pacas variety (a dwarf Bourbon found on a farm owned by the Pacas family\u2014more on them in a moment) and a Maragogype variety, which is a mutation of Typica that has remarkably large leaves, fruit, and seeds. The cup quality tends to be stellar, which might explain why 7 out of the top 10 Best Cup coffees were Pacamara, as well as 26 out of the top 34 entries in the 2019 El Salvador Cup of Excellence. Of the remaining CoE contenders, four were Bourbon, two were Kenyan varieties such as SL-28 or what is locally called Kenia, one was a hybrid called Centroamericano, and one was a type called Bernadina.<\/p>\n

Bernadina, explains Cafe Imports director of European sales Stuart Ritson, \u201cwas discovered on a farm owned by the Pacas family,\u201d and it took third place in the competition. Stuart was an observational judge in the contest in preparation to acting as an international jurist in a future CoE, and like any good flavor nerd, he perked up at the news of the variety. He retells its origin story like this: \u201cA few years ago, they discovered 30 trees they couldn\u2019t identify as anything else. Originally, they believed these to be a Bourbon hybrid, but after cupping and DNA tests it was shown that the variety is entirely unknown and the only genetics it matched were some coffees found in Ethiopia. How these coffees got to El Salvador, no one knows!\u201d<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.7″ src=”\/\/cdn.cafeimports.com\/images\/Cafe_Imports_El_Salvador_Harvest_Report-1-8.jpg” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”7. Carlos Mauricio Lemus” _builder_version=”3.7″ text_font=”Raleway||||||||” text_font_size=”15px” header_font=”Raleway||||||||” header_font_size=”25px” text_orientation=”justified”]<\/p>\n

Another exciting development from this year\u2019s CoE is that one of the Chalate producers with whom we\u2019ve worked for years, Carlos Mauricio Lemus, took seventh place with a Natural-process Pacamara from his farm Pe\u00f1a Redonda, scoring 88.94!<\/p>\n

Although El Salvador has struggled to recover its pre-rust harvest sizes, this year Piero says that the yield has been notably bigger, and the hope is that quality-incentive programs like Best Cup and the\u00a0Peque\u00f1os\u00a0project will allow Caf\u00e9 Imports to continue to play matchmaker between producers and roasters for their mutual benefit\u2014and of course for the benefit of coffee\u2019s sustainability overall.<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”7. Carlos Mauricio Lemus” _builder_version=”3.7″ text_font=”Raleway||||||||” text_font_size=”15px” header_font=”Raleway||||||||” header_font_size=”25px” text_orientation=”justified”]<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to learn more about the smallholder producers of Chalatenango, El Salvador, and to peruse our incoming offerings from this year\u2019s crop, click below.<\/div>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_cta button_text=”Offerings” use_background_color=”off” background_color=”#7bb262″ border_style=”solid” custom_button=”on” button_url=”https:dev.cafeimports.com\/offerings#\/keyword=\/origin=El%20Salvador\/” header_font=”Changa One||||” button_text_color_hover=”#ffffff” button_text_color=”#000000″ button_border_color=”#000000″ button_bg_color_hover=”#911814″ button_border_color_hover=”#911814″ module_class=”CI-divi-button1″ custom_css_promo_button=”width: 100%;||min-height: 90px;||” saved_tabs=”all” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial” _builder_version=”3.7″ \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been another season to celebrate forward momentum and growth in El Salvador, senior green-coffee buyer Piero Cristiani reports after the end of the recent harvest. After several years of struggle following an outbreak of coffee-leaf rust, this small but strong producing country is boasting a bigger yield and stellar cups of Pacas and Pacamara, the latter variety \u201ca national treasure of El Salvador,\u201d Piero says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":42813,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[142],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-el-salvador"],"site_id":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}