Peru Alto Maravilla - Eloy Huillca Robles

About the Producer

Cusco, ancestral stronghold of the Incas, has a dynamic ancient culture that stands out worldwide. Inca customs and legacies still exist as an important part of Peru's identity. Cusco, despite being an Andean area replete with snow-capped mountains, lagoons and frozen areas, also contains a large portion of the Peruvian Amazon, a place where different cultures converge and home to the greatest biodiversity in Latin America.

It is in this forest where some of the finest coffees in Peru are produced—especially in Yanatile district. Yanatile is a unique place with a wide variety of environs, where you can perceive drastic changes in the terrain and climate in just a couple of hours’ travel.

Mendosayoc is a small town within the Yanatile district, made up of 50 coffee-producing families. Everyone in the community speaks Quechua as their first spoken language. As in many other remote communities, there is not telephone signal so Eloy and his family have to walk during 2 hours from their house to the central part of the town to receive and make calls.

Eloy Huillca Robles belongs to one of the largest families of the community, the Huillca. He grows the Typica variety on his farm called Alto Maravilla (Spanish for High Wonder) along with his wife and children. His farm is located at a high altitude of 2038 masl and hosts an area of ​​4.25 hectares. Coffee and avocado are their only income crops. Eloy does not hire harvesters for the harvest season—everything is done within the family or through the practice called Ayni, an ancient Inca custom of communal labor sharing.

His farm Alto Maravilla is 6 hours away from Cusco city, the first 5 hours can be done in a car over a paved road, after this the road ends and we have to walk up to the mountain during 1 hour, Eloy uses mules to transport his coffee from the farm to the nearest part of the road.

Eloy has worked in coffee all his life and plans to continue; he knows that it is the only way he will be able to support his family and give a better future to his children. We at Red Fox are very proud to work with Eloy and the Huillca family, a relationship that began in the area over 5 years ago and remains strong over the years.

About the Processing

After harvest, he and his family ferment the coffee for 36 to 46 hours in cement tanks and then dry it for 15 to 20 days in raised beds (depending on the climate).

Price

The FOB price for this lot was $3.40. [FOB price is the total price of the coffee up to the point of departure from the country; it includes farmgate/price paid to the grower, in-country transportation, and the cost of processing and preparation for export. It does not include the price of freight to the US, US warehousing, US customs charges, or the cost of moving coffee with the US.]

During the harvest season from October through November, the New York C price for coffee was an average of $2.65; the $3.40 FOB price for this coffee includes a significant premium for the farmer above the C market price, which reflects the excellent quality of this coffee. After being imported to a warehouse in the consuming country, the United States, the coffee cost was $5.15/lb. The cost of the shipping from the warehouse to our roastery made our final green price $5.24.

Avg. C Price (at the time of harvest): $2.65

F.O.B Price: $3.40

Ex-Warehouse: $5.15

Final Green Price: $5.24

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