David Guevara Armijos

Farm:  David Guevara Armijos
Owner:  David Guevara Armijos
Location:  La Libertad, La Coipa, San Ignacio, Peru
Altitude:  1800-1900 masl
Varietal:  Bourbon, Caturra
Process:  Washed
Tasting Notes:  Toffee and tropical fruits with a raw chocolate finish.

We sourced this coffee through Falcon Coffee who had the following to share:

David Guevara Armijos is a second-generation coffee farmer who owns land in la Libertad, La Coipa. David has 3 hectares of land dedicated to coffee production, where he grows caturra, castillo and catuai varieties. David's farms are situated in an ideal growing area for quality coffee, due to the relatively high humidity, altitude, and rich, fertile soils. David hires seasonal workers to pick his coffee, but he and his family also do a lot of the picking, especially this year as there was a huge shortage of seasonal workers in the region. Once picked, David and his family washed the cherry in fresh water before depulping and fermenting overnight. Once fermentation is complete, usually 12 to 18 hours depending on the weather, the coffee is rinsed and placed on beds to skin dry. Once skin drying is done the coffee is moved to a lined patio where it dries for a week to 10 days.

Alongside Honduras, Peru has historically been regarded as the discount Latin American origin of unremarkable and often unreliable quality. This reputation and its accompanying price discount are the results of supply chains focused on large volumes based on aggregated quality, built to serve roasters seeking value over remarkable coffee. This happens at the expense of Peruvian farmers who don’t reap the rewards of higher income through improved quality.

We believe that Peru has the potential to match up on quality to any of its origin counterparts in Latin America. We set out to prove this.

The altitude of the Andes combined with rich volcanic soils and tropical rainfall means that Peru has the ideal topography and climate for producing high quality Arabica coffee. We identified the problem as post-harvest processing. Farmers had received little to no training on the chemistry and precision required to maximise the quality of their coffees. We realised that if we provided training that demanded attention to detail, we would need to offer the financial incentive to reward those farmers who made the effort.

In 2018 Falcon Peru SARL was registered as an export company and we opened a small warehouse with QC lab in the northern coffee town of Jaen, Cajamarca. Farmers bring their dry parchment to the warehouse for quality analysis, some tasting their own coffees for the first time. They receive a cup score and an offer price immediately, which they can accept or refuse. In 2019 and 2020, on average Falcon paid double the commercial rate for parchment in Jaen.

In 2018 we established Falcon Coffees Peru with an initial intake of partnerships with 35 farmers. These farmers were selected based on their potential and willingness to produce outstanding qualities, and most were based in an area called Huabal.

As of 2022 Falcon Coffees Peru is

• 275 producers across 15 districts in Cajamarca.
• 3 producer associations.
• 10 full time employees, 50% female.

In 2022 we focussed on improving our operations and technical activities. This has allowed us to increase volumes and develop the in-house facilities at our dedicated warehouse space. As many smallholder producers lack on-farm drying infrastructure to dry their coffee properly, we also installed additional drying facilities close to the warehouse to enable producers to achieve optimum moisture levels and lock in cup quality that would otherwise be lost where coffee cannot be dried properly.

In the Autumn of 2022, Peru was selected as the first origin at which to begin conducting in depth field research into carbon emission at farm level as part of our Carbon Project. (https://www.falconcoffees.com/beginning-the-knowledge-transfer-project/)

From the end of October, we will continue training producers on best practice for fertiliser application as well as assist producers in diversifying varietals on their farms.

As Falcon controls the supply chain from farmer to your door, these coffees qualify for our Blueprint Project label, where we can provide economic transparency data for every household that provided you with the coffee you purchased.