The Producer:
From a young age Wilman Efren Mayo Hidalgo began to carve a career in coffee production, following in his father’s footsteps. Always having been surrounded by agriculture and coffee cultivation has put him in good stead to work in a respectful manner, treating the land and native forest upon which his farm is situated with reverence and sensitive custodianship.
After working with his father for many years, he was able to save up enough money to buy his own farm in Palanda, Zamora-Chinchipe: Finca Los Romerillos. Spanning 100 hectares only a quarter is planted out with coffee, the remainder being left as a nature reserve with some active reforestation projects undertaken to support and protect biodiversity. His own son, Jaime Francisco Mayo, is now learning the ropes as Wilman passes on the knowledge he has accrued over the years.
Their Approach:
Since 2013 Wilman has been a specialty coffee producer, working with Caravela Coffee and APECAP co-operative to seek agronomical advice on moving into a more specialised sector focussed on producing higher quality.
The coffee on Finca Los Romerillos is a mixture of cultivars, including Typica, Typica Mejorado, Bourbon & Catuaí, and is planted amongst native shade trees, including Erytrina, Porotillo, Guaba & Pachul trees. Through conservation and reforestation efforts they are supporting a wide array of local bird wildlife. Because of the premiums that Wilman receives for his specialty coffee production he is able to pay higher wages for the workers on his farm, generating reliable employment for people in the region.
The Exporter:
Caravela Coffee, with whom we have been lucky to travel with in Ecuador, are a Carbon Neutral B Corp with a boots-on-the-ground approach, employing a team of agronomists to run their PECA training program. This form of farmer outreach is extremely valuable, not just in raising the quality and quantity of a producer’s outturns through dispensing agronomical advice, but in predicting yields, planning and financial support.
Ecuador boasts a negative carbon footprint for green coffee production with -0.5kg carbon emitted per kilo of green produced. This is thanks in part to the native forestry maintained and protected on coffee farms acting as a carbon sink, as well as minimal use of fertilisers and agro-inputs.
Caravela have been working in Ecuador since 2007 and now support a network of over 200 individual coffee farmers and families. Their main buying hub for the south is in Catamayo. After being cupped and graded, blended lots are composed, and the parchment coffee is moved to Quito to be hulled and have the quality refined and homogenised at Caravela’s own dry mill.
