Ian Visits Fairtrade-certified Producers in Peru

Shade Grown Coffee

Our objective was to visit Fairtrade and Organic coffee farms and learn how they are improving their quality whilst growing coffee with respect for the environment.

We stayed in the industrial city of Jean (pronounced Hey-Ann) about 5 hours gruelling drive across the Andes south east of Piura, a historic city founded in 1532 by the conquistadores  in Northern Peru. Our hosts for the visit were Gerardo Alarcon – General Manager of the Sol & Café cooperative together with Manuel Chinchay one of the cooperative Directors (‘Mr 96%’ as we called him). 

The 2 hour drive from Jean to Santa Rosa took us through the lowland rice fields and up into the mountains that surround the city.  The countryside is lush and green and fertile, such a contrast to the brown, desert like plains that surround lowland Piura.