The Perez Family has been producing coffee on this land for 90 years and for more than 3 dacades have been delivering to Beneficio La Esperanza. Erick Perez is currently in charge of production and has been working diligently on maintaining a high quality while fighting against climate change, leaf rust and other diseases.

El Porvenir Farm is spread over a whopping 112 hectares of land. Most of it is overgrown not only with coffee, but also with native trees. These provide the coffee plants with shade and rich biodiversity, along with the necessary nutrition in the form of fallen leaves. Regarding the fertility and amount of nutrients in the soil, the farm probably owes the quality of its crops to this day to the historical disaster in the form of the eruption of the Fuego volcano. In the years 1972-1976, the entire farm and plants were covered with more than 50 cm of volcanic dust. It reportedly took nearly 2 years to dig the plants back into the light from the ashes. The farmers expected the worst, but the coffee trees survived the disaster in good health and, thanks to the rich mineral composition of the dust, thrived and are still thriving today. A bit of a paradox, but that’s nature.

For the last 15 years, the farm has been struggling with intense coffee rust, but it is gradually winning this difficult battle thanks to a better method of applying fertilizers and planting more resistant varieties. However, the financial problems of the farm were great – the owner Erik even had to move to the USA for two years to secure another source of income for his family and the farm.

Today, the farm is doing much better, steadily employing 5 people throughout the year and another 30 workers during the harvest. Cherries are processed in the La Esperanza cooperative using the usual washed method and dried for about 2 weeks on classic patios, which are concrete surfaces intended for drying.