Bolivia – FTO La Paz – Cooperativa San Juan – Projecto Yungas La Paz – Red Catuai & Typica – Green Unroasted

About: Cooperativa San Juan was founded in 1974 in Caranavi, La Paz, Bolivia. Caranavi is by far the largest coffee growing area in Bolivia, accounting for about 90% of the total coffee production in the country. Over 30 individual farms are members of this coop.  This is a Fair Trade and Organic certified coop. Felix Chambi Garcia is a pioneer in Bolivian specialty coffee and a core member of the team and our main point of contact for this project. Felix is extremely engaged in the specialty coffee scene in Bolivia, and brings that excitement to the development work being done with this farmers and coop members. In Bolivia, coffee is processed and dried at the individual farm level, then coffee is brought to the coop’s central facility in Allto Cochabamba for evaluation and lot building. At the farm level, coffee is often depulped by hand, fermented for about 1 full day, then dried on raised beds. One the big initiatives the coop is working on is getting more mechanical demucilaginators to standardize the wet milling process at the farm level.

Fair Trade and Organic Coffee is central to the ethos that many coffee producers have in Bolivia, which is a deep care for the land and it’s resources. Individual producers came together to form this certified coop and are guaranteed to receive a minimum price floor and price premiums for organic.