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Just Coffee El Salvador Delegation Report
This month a lively group of eight joined Just Coffee on a week long venture through the tiny Central American country of El Salvador. The main goal was to link producers and consumers and to show how Just Coffee goes about establishing new relationships with producer groups (and to drink as much coffee/eat as many mangoes and pupusas as possible in one week).
By Julia Baumgartner
April 2011
Much ground was covered during these eight days as we explored the many details that go into organizing cooperatives, planting, caring for, and harvesting, processing, preparing, and tasting coffee. We had a wonderful week getting to know each other, the farms, producers, the culture, and many different towns. As always it was a fast paced week filled with intense experiences, much learning, and plenty of laughter.
Our week started with a visit to the Salvadoran Coffee Council at the Ministry of Agriculture in the capitol city of San Salvador. Here were met with professional roasters, cuppers, and baristas who explained to us the important role that coffee plays in El Salvador's economy. We tasted that quality in a cupping session, learning about the best slurping techniques while distinguishing chocolate, citrus and carmel flavors in several different Salvadoran coffees. We also visited their barista school where their head barista made each one of us a cappuccino to remember. During the delegation, we worked closely with FUNDE (National Development Foundation of El Salvador), which is a research center that also carries out many multi-sectorial sustainable development projects throughout the country. They have partnered with the cooperatives we are working with to offer technical assistance along with organizational support, soliciting new infrastructure and equipment, and finding access to better markets.
After a stop in at FUNDE, we left the busy city and headed eastward up through the mountains to the picturesque town of Alegria, Usulutan where we spent the next few days. Las Marias 93 Cooperative, made up of 64 ex-combatants from the Salvadoran civil war, welcomed us into their facilities and homes. Members of the coop taught us all more than we could imagine about their incredible history of fighting twelve years in the mountains, their strong organizational structure, coffee production and processing, as well as youth development. An overnight home-stay with co-op members and their families was the highlight of the trip for most participants. Delegation members took part in a conversation with Las Marias and Just Coffee about the difficult realities of fair trade, the effect the high market price of coffee has on producers these days, and a likely new partnership between the two of us in the near future.
From there we visited with APICAFE, an umbrella organization that coordinates several coffee and beekeeping cooperatives throughout the region. Here we learned from the farmers themselves about the production of seemingly magic recipes for organic fertilizers, the ins and outs of growing tomatoes organically in desert conditions, and enjoyed the opportunity to participate in a beekeeping workshop. We dressed up in beekeeping suits and headed into the apiaries (which were surround by flowering coffee farms!) to meet the bees and harvest honey. We managed to get away with only one bee sting and many bellies full of honey. After our brains were nearly filled to capacity with new information, we took a detour to my favorite colonial town of Suchitoto for some R & R (pool, drinks, mountain views, and a discoteca) before heading back home. We were once again impressed by the beauty of the country, the intense history, and the perseverance of the people we met along the way.
If you live in the Madison area and would like to hear more about our recent travels in El Salvador and updates on how producer groups are dealing with the high price of coffee, join us at our Delegation Report Back at the Willy Street Coop East location on April 11th at 7 pm and at the Willy Street Coop West location on April 28th at 7 pm.
