Origin: Selva Andina Cooperative

Area/Province: Cajamarca and Amazonas
Districts: Many
Harvested/finished drying: August/September
Drying times: 12-25 days
Altitude: 1400 – 2020 Masl
Fermentation time: 15 – 48 hours
Varieties: Caturra / Pache /Catuai /Typica/Costa Rica/Catimor (few)
Members: 618 farms/families

The Project

The association of Selva Andina was founded in 2003, but officially became Cooperativa Agraria de Servicios Múltiples Selva Andina in 2015. The farmers are located in many different districts in Cajamarca and the Amazonas departements North in Peru. The cooperative is medium sized with about 620 members.

Their goal is to support its members in the improvement of sustainable organic coffee production, commercialization, always respecting the ecological balance and improving the quality of life of its producers.

What they do to incentivise quality?

The cooperative helps members improve their infrastructure for the processing of coffee, such as drying systems, fermentation and washing tanks, plus they offer training on farm practices and the harvest process, and post harvest processing.

Price transparency and premiums to producers, first and second payments

The General Assembly of delegates communicates the base price and quality premiums through bulletins and committee meetings, where it is explained how the price is calculated and distribution of the premium. This according to the General Assembly agreements that members vote on.

The management team

Roman Barboza Vasquez is the manager and he oversees 20 people in the following departments: Management, Board of Directors, Traceability, Accounting and Treasury, Marketing, Quality Control, Technical Area, Collection and Warehouse; and finally Maintenance and Cleaning.

The objective of the cooperative, according to Roman Barboza Vasquez, is to improve the economic income of its members, and therefore the living standards of farmers and their families.

Roman says, “It fills me with great satisfaction to have watched Selva Andina since its inception as it continues contributing to its growth and development. It motivates me to know that members receive better prices for their coffee, they have benefits and services that the cooperative grants them.”

Sustainability

Selva Andina is under the umbrella of a sustainability project called “Cafe Selva Norte”. For every pound (lb) of coffee you buy, 5 US cents (USC) is contributed by you through Nordic Approach. These projects offer a producer-based holistic solution to the complex sustainability challenges facing the coffee value-chain.

Launched in 2019, the project has been co-developed with 6 cooperatives in northern Peru (in the Amazonas coffee origin regions). The project aims to transition the coffee value chain to a more sustainable model to the benefit of coffee producers as well as all value-chain stakeholders.

Coffee income for the Café Selva Norte project directly supports the following activities:

• Transition to sustainable land use (agroforestry and forestry)
• Minka impact traceability software
• Quality improvement through technical assistance, organic fertilisation, post-harvest training and supply chain infrastructure.
• $ 338,000 USD in loans to 170 producers across the 6 partner cooperatives to renovate and implement 170 hectares of agroforestry systems.

Developed 5 nurseries in order to produce for 2020:

• 52,319 shade trees,
• 508,400 coffee trees.

KPI’s for the project

• 3000 producers involved across the 6 cooperatives
• 2.6 million trees planted
• 8.2 hectares converted to shade coffee
• 200 K hectares of forest conserved
• 3.8 million tons CO2 emissions reduced.

Our sourcing program

The coffees are either micro-lots or communal or cooperative producer blends from the areas in the north around Jaen and San Ignacio. The farms are normally between 1-3 hectares and are family run. They harvest, pulp, ferment and dry the coffees at the farms. If the producers are part of a premium program, like ours, they will more likely invest in their production and sit on enough parchment to create potential micro-lots or improved community blends.

So far most of our coffees are coming from small caserios (villages) in La Coipa, Colossay, San Ignacio and other similar places. These are all places that we have identified with great potential through selective cupping. We also know that our exporting partner is investing in the producer relations there with support on quality protocols, traceability programs and premiums.

The concept for us is the same across the communities where we source. We select micro-lots of the coffees that are high performing at lot sizes between 10 – 20 bags. And we try to buy producer blends from the same areas as much as we can. The program is based on good premiums paid to the producers across all our coffees. To invest in the communities is crucial to get a consistent supply and to give the farmers incentives to invest.

In general

• Average farm size: Less than 2 hectares
• Harvesting season: May – October
• Process: Almost only washed processed at the farms in tiny micro mills
• Fermentation: Mainly dry fermented in small wood or concrete tanks. Some are doing wet fermentation.
• Drying: On plastic on the ground, rooftops, parabolic dryers etc. A few are using tables/african beds.
• Altitudes: Mainly 1600 – 2000 masl
• Varieties: Bourbon, Typica, Caturra, Catuai, Pache, Costa Rica, Catimor. Recently good amounts of Geisha planted
• They measure picking in “Lata” (buckets) 1 lata is 13,5 kg cherry
• 20 lata is 1 quintal of greens (46 kg) but is counted in parchment quintal, meaning enough parchment to produce 46kg of greens after milling, in this case 55.2 kg of parchment
• They measure in hectares, but do also use the name cuadra or manzanas.
• Normal yield on average farms is about 15-18 quintales of greens per hectare. The really well managed farms can easily double the volumes per hectare.

What you need to know about the price data

Farmer delivers: Parchment

Unit of Measurement: Quintal (55.2kg of parchment)

Currency: Sol (PEN)

Average cost of production: 320 – 400 PEN/quintal*

If the coffee meets our quality standards on humidity and has a minimum score of 85, we pay a base price of 500-600 PEN per quintal. The price depends on the program and commitment of the producer.

If the coffee cups above 87, and there is sufficient volume for a micro-lot, we pay an additional 100-150 PEN per quintal after the coffee has been contracted and exported.