Peru - Aprocassi

Relationship: This is a coffee we were able to work on with our friends at Balzac Brothers Coffee. Ever since we brought Rwanda - Inzovu, there was a willingness to expand on the relationship and our trust in them led to this coffee. Balzac Brothers are a third generation coffee importer and founded in 1917, they have been importing green coffee for over a 100 years now.

Country: Although production of coffee dates back to the 18th century, it wasn’t until early 20th century that Peru started to export coffee. A mountainous  country, farms in Peru are often remote and challenging to get to. Most of the coffee production in Peru is done by smallholder farms and on the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains. As of 2017, coffee was the most valuable agricultural product of the country, now it faces competition from grapes, blueberries and avocados. Another challenge has been transportation of coffee, due to mountainous terrain and lack of advanced infrastructure to farms transportation of coffees has been a challenge. That being said, Peru is the leading producer hor fair trade and organic arabica coffees. 

Region: Located in northern Peru, Cajamarca is blessed with moderate climate, fertile soil of the Andes Mountains. Most producers in Cajamarca are, much like the rest of Peru, small producers with average farm size of 2-3 hectares. Much like rest of South American producers, farmers have small pulpers and parabolic dryers. APROCASSI Cooperative works quite closely with San Ignacio, one of the thirteen provinces in Cajamarca. 

Processing Station: Aprocassi currently has 600 active members, distributed throughout the provinces of San Ignacio and Jaen in the department of Cajamarca, with crops grown at altitudes ranging from 1,000 to 2,500 meters above sea level. The cooperative also develops social and environmental projects, thus contributing to improving the living conditions of their producers and maintaining environmental sustainability. Aprocassi has many interesting projects and initiatives including empowering women coffee growers to implement beekeeping as a means to diversify their farms and increase yields. They have also piloted a study to analyze the life cycle of their production from farm to port shipment in order to become carbon neutral.