Organic Peru San Juan - 5 lb Bag

APROCASJ (Asociacion De Productores Cafetaleros Agroecologicos “San Juan”) was founded in early 2016 by 66 coffee producers. Members are committed to using good agricultural practices and certifications to improve the income & living conditions for member growers. At the time, they were called San Juan Agroecological Coffee Producers Association, they became APROCASJ officially in March 2019, supported by 233 members.

From their main offices in San Ignacio city, APROCASJ works with members across three districts in Cajamarca: San Ignacio, La Coipa and Tabaconas. APROCASJ has Fairtrade and Organic certifications.

APROCASJ members are smallholders and most work on the farm is done by the family. Some producers hire additional labor during the harvest season to help them carefully hand-select only the most ripe cherry.

Cherry is selectively handpicked and processed on member farms. Ripe, red cherry is pulped and fermented for 15 to 30 hours. Parchment is then washed in clean water and laid to sun dry. Producers rake parchment frequently to ensure even drying. It takes approximately 10 to 15 days for parchment to dry.

Peru holds exceptional promise as a producer of high-quality coffees. The country is the largest exporter of organic Arabica coffee globally. With extremely high altitudes and fertile soils, the country’s smallholder farmers also produce some stunning specialty coffees.

Though coffee arrived in Peru in the 1700s, very little coffee was exported until the late 1800s. Until that point, most coffee produced in Peru was consumed locally. When coffee leaf rust hit Indonesia in the late 1800s, a country central to European coffee imports at the time, Europeans began searching elsewhere for their fix. Peru was a perfect option.

Between the late 1800s and the first World War, European interests invested significant resources into coffee production in Peru. However, with the advent of the two World Wars, England and other European powers became weakened and took a less colonialist perspective. When the British and other European land owners left, their land was purchased by the government and redistributed to locals. The Peruvian government repurchased the 2 million hectares previously granted to England and distributed the lands to thousands of local farmers. Many of these farmers later grew coffee on the lands they received.

Today, Peruvian coffee growers are overwhelmingly small scale. Farmers in Peru usually process their coffee on their own farms. Most coffee is Fully washed. Cherry is usually pulped, fermented and dried in the sun on raised beds or drying sheds. Drying greenhouses and parabolic beds are becoming more common as farmers pivot towards specialty markets.

After drying, coffee will then be sold in parchment to the cooperative. Producers who are not members of a cooperative will usually sell to a middleman.

The remoteness of farms combined with their small size means that producers need either middlemen or cooperatives to help get their coffee to market. Cooperative membership protects farmers greatly from exploitation and can make a huge difference to income from coffee. Nonetheless, currently only around 15-25% of smallholder farmers have joined a coop group.