Guatemala Cafe Delas - Tajumuco Women Producers Lot

Café Delas coffee comes from farming operations owned by women. According to the United Nations, if women farmers had the same access to resources as men, the gains in productivity would reduce the number of people experiencing hunger in the world by 150 million. Women reinvest more of their direct earnings into the well-being of their households, communities, and businesses. And yet, with few exceptions, key aspects of coffee as an agricultural endeavor around the world are owned and controlled by men. This must change and Café Delas takes up the challenge of that change.

This smallholder lot is built from select harvests from smallholders Baudilia Isabal Mazariegos and Cornelia Juarez Herrera. Due to the altitude of in Tajumuco between 1400 and 2000 meters above sea level, traditional varieties like Caturra, Pache Verde, Catuai and Bourbon coffee are produced. The women of the region build seedbeds where the seeds collected from the best trees are planted in small beds of one meter wide by four meters long, then they fill bags with specially selected and sifted soil, after a while they transplant the seedlings with the best characteristics. During the planting period the area is cleaned of weeds, fertilized, and pests and diseases are controlled with organic products until it is ready for harvest. For the harvest, the cherries are transported, de-pulped, fermented, washed and dried. This process begins in December and ends in April in the lowlands, in the highlands the peak of the harvest is in February and March