Candelaria Chubajá

Candelaria is a young and motivated coffee farmer from Baja Verapaz. She has named her farm La Rosa, after the roses she loved as a child, and which now adorn her house and the farm’s garden. Candelaria recalls that her father always motivated her and her family to grow coffee, because his dream was to produce and sell specialty coffee.

When she had to take over the farm after her father’s death five years ago, Candelaria took over the entire administration, planning and management of the tasks on the plantations. At the same time, her brother supervised the processing and drying. A year ago, however, she decided to change the harvesting methods and focus more on quality. Candelaria says: “Good fertiliser management has made us more productive these years, even though our land is not as fertile as we would like. As a result, I can support my family. Still, we face challenges such as management and traditional processing with the existing infrastructure.”

They use a small motor-driven de-pulper, do a 48-hour dry fermentation in bags and dry the coffee for 6-7 days on patios. All the coffee is shade-grown under shade and consists of 95% Catimor and 5% Catuai varieties. In the future, Candelaria and her family plan to plant more trees and have more control over the service to maintain good productivity and cup quality.