We were thrown into the deep end with a visit in our first day in Guatemala to the vast dry mill of the federation of co-operatives of small producers FEDECOCAGUA. The organisation is a country wide representative body for 26 different small cooperatives, helping to support more than 10,000 small producers.
These co-operatives process and sell their coffee through FEDECOCAGUA which channels profits back into support for the producers such as financing, access to international markets and technical support from their team of agronomists.
This model has been very successful with producers finding strength in numbers in recent years that has challenged the power of traditional, family owned private farms. So much so that they are currently locked in a bitter legal dispute over money laundering.
Guatemalan importer Javier Gutierrez (Caribbean Goods) has built a strong relationship FEDECOCAGUA which has allowed him to export some stunning community coffees to Scotland in recent years. We have had the pleasure buying a few of these Guatemalan small producer lots through Javier including La Libertad from Huehuetenango and most recently Hunbatz.
Working with Javier has also given us access to the remote mountainous region of Huehuetenango on the border with Mexico. The combination of altitude, shade and volcanic soil has long earned "Hue Hue’s" reputation for producing beautiful coffees with floral notes and crisp, green apple acidity.
But before visiting Hue Hue Javier wanted myself and fellow Scottish Roasters Bruce and Kate from Mutual and Thomsons to where all of the coffee that is sold through FEDECOCAGUA ends up. A vast warehouse that is currently gearing up into full production for the 2026 harvest. Here the coffee is delivered both green and in parchment to be processed, packed into bags and neatly stored in mind boggling coffee mountains.
The harvest is only just getting into full swing when we visited and the network of several huge warehouses will soon be stacked high with coffee from all over Guatemala, primarily for export. FEDECOCAGUA also roast for a relatively small but growing domestic wholesale market in separate area of the mill.
I was blown away by the efficiency and scale of this highly automated coffee processing plant. Big machines were constantly whirring away with a complex array of pipework stretching from floor to ceiling. A team or workers bustled around with fork load trucks of greens, packing bags and sifting by eye through a constant conveyor belt green coffee for defects.
The floor manager who showed us around in high vis vests and helmets couldn’t tell us exactly how much coffee is processed and shipped every season but the volumes are breathtaking. He said their warehouses are emptied six or seven times from the beginning to the end of every season.
For FEDECOCAGUA is an indisputable example of what can be achieved with mutual co-operation and collaboration. How under resourced and represented small producers coffee producers have come together to build an a brighter future.
