In 2018 we hosted our first Full Circle event, aimed at bringing producers together to learn from each other, and for roasters to learn about the challenge’s farmers face as well as the innovation which is happening at origin.
It was an extremely successful event with positive feedback from all sides. The roasters gave a donation to attend the event, of which 100% was given to a chosen project at origin.
Customer donations raised $2,668 and DRWakefield topped up the fund to reach the amount needed to a total of $4,118 for Central Cooperativa Indígena del Cauca (CENCOIC) who was chosen to receive the money raised.
The CENCOIC proposal was to build solar drying beds because 47% of their members did not have any drying equipment due to of lack of finances, 19% had average equipment and just 34% had good drying equipment. The drying process is key to producing quality coffee, and the solar dryers will mean a better quality coffee is produced.
After receiving the donation each chosen community has been hard at work preparing the area for building the drying beds. One family on each reserve (there are 17 indigenous reserves) was chosen to construct a solar dryer.
The producers cleared and prepared the areas for construction, and the donation money paid for the materials and transportation to each site. Many producers have expanded their coffee production as they now have an adequate way to dry the coffee, and the next harvest is expected to be a higher quality – we are looking forward to seeing the results!
One example of this is La Planada farm owned by Jamie Coicue Pavi, he has 3,000 trees all with good production. In the past, his coffee became quickly damaged because he did not have a suitable space to dry the coffee. He could sometimes borrow space in his brother’s parabolic dryer but he could never get his whole harvest to the cooperative in good condition.
With the money donated he has now been able to build his own parabolic dryer which will allow him to dry all his own coffee.
The project proposal was for 17 CENCOIC farms but because the communities managed to source many materials locally, and prepared the land and did the building work themselves they were able to provide money for 32 dryers.
Not all dryers have been completed but all sites are being worked on, we will continue to keep you up to date with the progress. If you would like to read their full report (in Spanish) please click here.
