Honduras – Luis Beltran Alvarado

Luis Beltran Alvarado Molina is the owner of El Triunfo, a 10 hectare farm at 1200masl in the Las Pacayas area of Corquin, Copan. Luis studied agronomy at university and provides a lot of support to other members of Aruco. He has worked for a number of years to improve production using innovative agronomic techniques. This year he produced a natural micro-lot and worked hard on cherry selection, and saw a huge improvement in quality as a result.  The producers will receive about 70% of the FOB price for their micro lots.

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 immatures.  The coffee is then taken to the beds where it is dried for between 20 -30 days weather depending where it is turned hourly.