Irene Sanchez, La Pluma 1

Description

Santiago Sochiltepec is a town of one thousand people, 420 indigenous Zapoteca households and 80 cell phones. It’s also the most populated town in the entire municipality, which spans the Sierra Madre mountain range that separates Oaxaca’s Central Valley from the Pacific Coast. This area is cooled by pine forests, evening fog and morning dew – making it the perfect climate for coffee. It’s not chance that this is the heart of Mexico’s famous La Pluma region, home to the Typica varietal of the same name and now protected as a recognized geographic indicator. Farmers from Sochiltepec are turning on to specialty one by one, and for advice they turn to Terra Coffeeas.
Terra Coffeas Mexico is a new (2022) collaboration to bring 80 years of operational expertise from the mill to export – in the form of long-time family-business Galguera Gomez – together with fresh perspectives from a young, CQI-calibrated team of on-the-ground mobilizers – led by the passionate Frida Mendoza. Their team includes engineers, agronomists, biologists, chemists, cuppers, artists and, of course, coffee lovers, all together for the common goal of agroecológico – the intentional purposing of international standards for quality, productivity and traceability, towards the advancement of local cultural practices, environmental resources, and economic outcomes.

This group is on the ground, investing their time and advancing producers consultancy services, well before the harvest begins. They have a narrow focus that allows them to truly partner with producers, reviewing farm, processing and export processes as a peer. While visiting the farms, Terra Coffeas staff also look to the household. They work with producers to fill out a customized family work plan that recognizes roles related to harvest and processing, and offer to pay an additional premium for women-produced coffees. And this is such a coffee, where women producers received an addition .15 – .20 USD / KG premium (2022).