4,500 tabi trees are planted around 1,700 masl and spread spaciously across 3.5 hectares, not far from Huila’s souther border. With two kids in the military, his youngest daughter studying physiology in Pitalito and his eldest son cultivating pitaya, Victor tends to the farm with his wife and as many as 8 to 15 pickers depending on the harvest.

Developed by Cenicafé, the FNC’s research and development center, tabi is a leaf rust resistant variety that combines timor hybrid, typica and Bourbon. According to Victor, the coffee pickers in his municipality prefer harvesting tabi over other varieties, as the ample space between the branches and different cherry nodes make their job more comfortable. That said, mr. Barrera still pays a lot of attention to the ripeness of the fruit they pick, offering them cop 480 per kg on average.

Victor says that pickers can bring in anywhere from 160 to 180 kg of ripe Cherry per day. In an effort to increase the quality and consistency of his picking, Victor is working on putting together a group of local, trained pickers that he can count on during his fly crop (June-July) and main harvest (October-December).