- The good agronomic practices for coffee cultivation learned in the MOCCA and Volcafe trainings helped Ruperta Álvarez, a Guatemalan producer, double her productivity.
- Initiative to sign purchase/sale contracts, connects Guatemalan coffee producers with the exporter Peter Schoenfeld S.A, a member of the Volcafe group.
Baja Verapaz is a department of Guatemala that is characterized by its cloud forests, its hard-working people, and a historic tradition in coffee cultivation.
It was in this place, where 20 years ago, in a village in the municipality of Cubulco, Ruperta Álvarez began her coffee plantation with great enthusiasm. However, her lack of knowledge and guidance soon made that first experience become a sad memory.
““I was very happy to start in the world of coffee, but I didn’t know much about crop management. My plants got sick with rust and I had to uproot them… that caused me a lot of economic losses,” says the 46-year-old coffee woman.
But Ruperta, mother of 3 daughters, is a woman who does not give up easily. In 2019 she gathered her courage and decided to get involved in coffee production again by establishing a small plantation. The first harvests were not very successful and she decided to start training in the MOCCA program, which works in Baja Verapaz in alliance with the company Volcafe.
MOCCA is a 7-year initiative funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) through its Food for Progress Program, which seeks to improve agricultural productivity and expand trade in agricultural products. The MOCCA project is being executed by a consortium led by TechnoServe. Lutheran World Relief leads the cocoa activities.
The alliance between MOCCA and Volcafe has provided technical training to more than 2,700 coffee producers in Baja Verapaz, to help them increase their productivity and profitability, through the implementation of good agricultural practices.
“With the techniques learned, I am now producing double the amount of parchment coffee. MOCCA technicians provided me with advice to control pests and diseases in my coffee plantation. “I also learned the proper doses and times to apply fertilizers.”
Ruperta Álvarez
Coffee producer
Baja Verapaz, Guatemala
Access to better markets
Since 2021, MOCCA and Volcafe have been promoting an initiative to sign purchase/sale contracts with producers in Baja Verapaz, with the aim of facilitating marketing links without intermediaries that allow them to obtain better income from the sale of coffee.
In the 2023-2024 harvest, 129 people participated in this initiative, accessing differentiated prices without intermediaries.
“My income increased! This year they paid me 60% more for each quintal of coffee. Signing a marketing contract benefits us because we negotiate directly with the exporter and they pay us fair prices. With the profits I took the opportunity to buy supplies to take care of my coffee plantation and construction materials to improve my house,” says Ruperta.
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.
