Colombia – Manos Juntas, Pacamara, Natural

Bean Basics

About the producer

Manos Juntas is a micromill in Sotara area of Colombia’s Cauca region, operated and managed by Cafe Imports exporting partners at Banexport. The entire concept of this micromill is based on simplifying tasks and responsibilities, for both producers and Banexport.

Based on this understanding, Banexport decided to establish Manos Juntas Micromill, in which they purchase cherries from producers and manage the processing, drying, and storage themselves. This model allows producers to focus on healthy production of specialty coffee, while the meticulous work of sorting, processing, drying, and storing is managed by Banexport’s team.

Key takeaways about this program:

1. Producers deliver and sell coffee in cherry form to Banexport, by total weight. The riper the cherry, the heavier it is. This encourages better harvest practice that directly correlates to higher quality.
2. Producers get paid upfront for their coffee, typically producers have to wait 35 to 40 days for coffee to dry before selling it.
3. Banexport guarantees to pay producers a fixed price well above the market value for these cherries.
4. Producers involved are from surrounding farms. This means they need only to travel a short distance to deliver coffee, as opposed to driving many kilometers into town.
5. Coffee infrastructure, like drying beds, fermentation tanks, and depulpers, can be very expensive to purchase and maintain. With this model, farmers can forgo all of this hassle and focus on maintaining healthy trees.

Roast Events

Roast profile recorded on an MCR1500