In Guatemala, Maximizing Opportunities in Coffee and Cacao in the Americas Program (MOCCA) works in partnership with the company Peter Schoenfeld S.A., a member of the VOLCAFE group, to strengthen the technical skills of more than two thousand coffee growers and improve their productivity and quality, thus facilitating access to planting material, financing under better conditions and links to secure markets.
In late 2021, and as part of the strategic actions of this alliance, contracts were signed with coffee producers in the Baja Verapaz area, aimed at facilitating direct marketing links that will allow them to obtain better income from coffee sales.

Tomás López, 59 years old, is a coffee producer from the municipality of San Jerónimo, Baja Verapaz, has been dedicated to coffee production for 25 years and joTomás López, 59 years old, a coffee producer from the municipality of San Jerónimo, Baja Verapaz, has been dedicated to coffee production for 25 years and joined MOCCA & VOLCAFE with the purpose of continuing to learn better cultivation practices that will allow him to increase the yields and quality of his harvest.
“I started harvesting coffee empirically 25 years ago and little by little I grew my plantation. Some of the problems I have faced during all this time have been the control of pests and diseases such as CBB and rust” Tomas Lopez
Through MOCCA & VOLCAFE’s remote and face-to-face trainings, coffee farmers like Tomás López have learned techniques to manage tissue, pests and disease control, soil management, fertilization, and post-harvest processes. All this learning is positively impacting their production yields.
Tomás is one of the coffee growers who participated in the MOCCA & VOLCAFE contract signing last November 2021.

“The knowledge I acquired through the trainings allowed me to increase my production by 40% and after signing the MOCCA & VOLCAFE contracts, I doubled my profits. Now I sell my coffee without intermediaries and I am paid a better price” Tomás López
With the profits obtained, Tomas is planning to make improvements to his house, buy inputs and supplies for his coffee farm and invest in renovation and rehabilitation activities, while waiting for the next harvest season.
About VOLCAFE
Together with Peter Schoenfeld S.A., a member of the Volcafe group, we are strengthening the capacities of more than 2,000 coffee growers in Baja Verapaz to improve their productivity, quality, access to planting material, and financing under better conditions. The company directly connects coffee growers with markets willing to pay more for quality through an online platform called Trackvia.