Fredy Rolando Pineda who has been involved with coffee production all his life inherited his 2 ha farm ‘Finca Fredy’ from his father before him. He is part of the Aruco Cooperative and is one of the 33 producers involved in their micro-lot program. He has been working on producing specialty micro lots since 2016 and receives advice from the technicians at Aruco about farm management and soil fertility to help produce good quality cherry and and prevent pests and disease. On the 2ha farm he works the land with his wife and receives extra help during the harvest with the collection of the coffee cherry before delivering to Aruco where the coffee is processed.

The producers will receive about 70% of the FOB price for their micro lots. This year the harvest for all producers was extremely difficult with increased rains during the harvest and a lack of pickers meaning a large amount of coffee was lost from either falling to the ground or swelling and splitting on the tree. All the processing for the ML’s takes place at the Aruco mill to centralise and have greater control over the process to create consistent procedures but also to reduce the risk on the producer. The mill is also at 800masl which gives a drier more stable climate to dry the coffee compared to up at the farms where the weather can be less predictable.

The coffee will be delivered to the mill where they assess the cherry (take Brix) and decide on the process for the coffees depending on space and what the producer has done already. The cherry is cleaned and washed and then floated to remove any immature. The coffee is then taken to the beds where it is dried for between 20 -30 days weather depending where it is turned hourly.