yes, robusta

“It touched our heart to see how farmers were interested in making their coffee better.”

Jimmy, administration manager at CEPRO Yanesha 

Remote, lost in the jungle, San Pedro plays by nature’s rules. The Yanesha know this in their bones. Their relationship with the wilderness, the mountains, and the rivers is carried on with the worshipping tribute that keeps their land secluded and protected. Monkeys, toucans, and many other wild species inhabit their home, and most producers live off the land, hunting, fishing, and cultivating fruit trees.

Canephora hasn’t been easy for them. “What is this?” someone would ask in the street, and when the farmer said, “It’s Robusta,” people in the street would wave it off and answer, “Ah, that’s little coffee, little coffee.” This reputation was mostly based on misconceptions. The coffee itself was good. Eventually, the farmers felt discouraged, some stopped producing coffee altogether. Others persisted. “They always tried to humiliate Canephora,” Says Julio. Martin also comments: “They didn’t take Canephora seriously.” “This is lentil coffee,” people would say to Rosalina in town, and if the coffee was sold, it would be at a very low price.

Something about how people spoke about this coffee and this region caught Gino and Jimmy’s attention. They decided to discover what it was and visited San Pedro. Back then, farmers mostly produced small quantities but on huge tracts of land, some as large as 100 hectares. When producers showed interest in improving their coffee, Gino and Jimmy took the challenge and started travelling to San Pedro, taking the long walk into the jungle, carrying the tools they needed to clean the land. After a long process of experimentation and processing assistance, they were happy: farmers discovered how they could indeed make better coffee.

We met Gino, general director, of Cepro Yanesha, through Rianne from Progreso, who hugely supported Cepro Yanesha in becoming a formal cooperative in 2016. In Milán, Gino talked about Canephora and its beautiful, carefully harvested flower, which we are also importing for the first time this year. Quite contrasting to the effect of coffee, its flower relaxes and helps to sleep. Two powerful remedies (and with the opposite effect) in one single plant. Only coffee.

 

These farmers make up our 2023 CEPRO Yanesha Blend


Cepro Yanesha works with nine producing groups in Perú. About 22% of the population in each community lives from the coffee they harvest. San Pedro de Pichanz is one of these communities and works with 13 farmers. Our Cepro Yanesha Blend comes from these 13 farmers. 

ANGEL BULEGE ANCO

hectares: 25
coffee production: 1.5 ha
reserved forest: 21.5 ha

DANIEL CUEVA FERNÁNDEZ

hectares: 50
coffee production: 2 ha
reserved forest: 28 ha

FRANCISCO LOPEZ QUINCHOYA

hectares: 30
coffee production: 2 ha
reserved forest: 28 ha

HERMINIO CARPENA DOMINGO

hectares: 32
coffee production: 2 ha
reserved forest: 29 ha

 

JOSÉ CABREJOS VEGA

hectares: 12
coffee production: 2.5 ha
reserved forest: 5 ha

Juan martín lópez

hectares: 20
coffee production: 1 ha
reserved forest: 18.5 ha

JULIO LA TORRE TORRES

hectares: 99.5
coffee production: 1.5 ha
reserved forest: 96 ha

LETICIA LOPEZ SEBASTIAN

hectares: 30
coffee production: 1,5 ha
reserved forest: 26 ha

 

Miguel abelardo

hectares: 25
coffee producing hectares: 1
reserved forest: 24

RONALD VICENTE QUICHA

hectares: 31
coffee producing hectares: 1
reserved forest: 29.5

ROSALINDA MACHARI CRUZ

hectares: 30
coffee producing hectares: 1
reserved forest: 27.5

WALTER LOPEZ GASPAR

hectares: 25
coffee producing hectares: 1
reserved forest: 24

 
 

ROGELIO MIGUEL DOMINGo

hectares: 100
coffee producing hectares: 2
reserved forest: 95.5

 
 
 
 

THIS SIDE UP VALUE CHAIN:

 

THE PRICE YOU PAY: €9,71

Our direct link is with CEPRO Yanesha, who links our roaster partners to the right growers in their Four Seasons project through blended Signature lots, single estate lots and various specially processed microlots. Capricornio is the ultimate example of a force for good for an entire producing region by understanding roaster needs perfectly.

CULTIVARS:

Robusta

 

ALTITUDE:

500-800 metres above sea level.

NOTABLE:

San Pedro de Pichanz is almost entirely a wild jungle. Farmers grow coffee in a small portion of their huge plots, some as big as 100 hectares.  Coffee is 100% organic certified. Besides coffee, this year we bought coffee flowers that, quite contrasting to the effect of coffee, is calming, and helps to sleep.  In San Pedro de Pichanaz, all the farmers work together during harvesting in a practice called ayni. Everyone works without payment, but works for each other.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS:

2020/2021: first purchase of CEPRO Yanesha beans by This Side Up through EFICO.

2022: we met Gino at the Milán Crossover and started talking about the cooperative, its members and its way of working. First direct export to This Side Up.

PROCESSING:

Coffee is harvested at its ripest point, in baskets. Coffee is then floated and transported to one of the de-pulpers recently provided to the farmers by Cepro Yanesha. Coffee is then ferments for around 36 hours in enclosed tanks. Producers carry their coffee from their plots in their backs; only one of them has a donkey. Once the coffee is gathered in San Pedro, Cepro Yanseha picks it up in trucks and carries on the exporting process. Harvesting starts in June and July. 

CEPRO YANESHA FARMERS:€5,00*

Is the total price Cepro Yanesha pays farmers in two rounds. So they pay 50% before the season starts and as soon as farmers start bringing the coffee in, this amount is discounted.

CEPRO YANESHA: €1,84

Cepro Yanesha  costs for coordinating the coffee export include: transportation to San Pedro de Pichanz, storage, drying and hulling in Villa Rica Highland. It takes around three trips in a pick up truck to transport  7 tons of Robusta.

SHIPPING: €1,03

Total shipping costs from Puerto del Callao  to Rotterdam + local clearance and warehousing.

THIS SIDE UP: €1,40

This Side Up compensation for spending time and resources importing this coffee, according to our most expensive Trade Model. Our work includes year-round contact with producers, managing export, shipping, import, warehousing, grading, sampling, finding and keeping roasting partners for all the coffees. For a full overview of what we do to earn our margin, see the Trade Models page.

FINANCING: €0,38

Average financing cost (5% of the sales price) we have to pay lenders - simply because we don’t have the money in the bank to buy such large amounts of coffee all at once. This ensures immediate payment to Cepro Yanesha when the coffee leaves the port.

REGENERATION: € 0,06

A standard TSU premium on all coffees designated exclusively to accelerate farmers’ own regenerative agriculture projects.

*These margins are guesstimates based, an educated calculation, based on information we received from our partner.

 

AVAILABLE FROM CEPRO YANESHA:

  • Cepro Yanesha - village lot - natural robusta

  • Cepro Yanesha - village lot - cascara

 

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES :

Browse through our Tastify Archives on Google Drive.

CONTACT CEPRO YANESHA

Gino Sadler is the manager of Cepro Yanesha, sent him an email to find out more about their coffee and impressive cooperative structure. Our communication is solely in Spanish.

 

CONTACT Gino Sadler

EMAIL gerencia@ceproyanesha.com

TEL  +51063465073

FACEBOOK


 

 
 

Av. Puerto bermudez no 825 Villa Rica, Perú

Photo Gallery:

You may use these images freely to promote Cepro Yanesha.

SAN PEDRO DE PICHANAZ

San Pedro de Pichanaz community belongs to the district of Villa Rica, province of Oxapampa, in the Pasco region. It is located at 550 to 600 meters above sea level, approximately one hour from the town of Cacazú, and two hours from the district of Villa Rica, on the way to Puerto Bermúdez. It is a privileged area surrounded by vast nature, bordering the San Matías San Carlos Nature Reserve. It is one of the few communities that can produce and sell canephora coffee.

In 1986, seeds were brought to San Pedro de Pichanaz to teach the community to cultivate exclusively canephora and arazá coffee and improve the agricultural production system. Five canephora varieties were introduced in the region and classified by the villagers according to the appearance of the grain: large grain, round grain, lentil grain, medium grain, and loquat-shaped grain. The seeds were given to six people to sow in a quarter of a block as a test to see if it was produced in the area, but not as a means of marketing. "They taught me to make coffee nurseries, they taught me to cure cattle, to cure guinea pigs, to dose chickens; that's what they taught." says a villager when explicitly asked about the teaching of canephora coffee.

Pichanz is divided into three sectors or villages: San Pedro, whose main product is Robusta, and run by Juan Javier Sebastián; San Francisco, also a Robusta coffee region and Asolis, which produces cacao. San Pedro de Pichanaz has been steadily growing; several ethnic groups, mainly the ya-neshas, some ashánincas and andean settlers inhabit it.

 

This is the first generation of Robusta coffee growers. It's quite admirable to notice how Robusta has indeed become the main economic activity in San Pedro de Pichanz, followed by achiote and cacao, and allows farmers to meet their basic needs: clothes, utensils, school, and housing. Thanks to their income, some of their children are now studying a professional careers outside the community. 

Cepro Yanesha opened a new market and also the possibility of assisting farmers in improving their processing. Besides growing coffee and cacao, villagers developed the Bosque project, which seeks nature preservation. Also, the rivers, the plants, and the animals hold a special meaning for the community because they use them in many ways. Most of them bathe in the river, fish, and hunt. They also have a deep history and knowledge of medicinal plants such as Llocboret' (zarzaparrilla) and Choyoperet' (columna de anguila). By mixing these, it is believed the blood is purified of contagious diseases. 

CEPRO YANESHA AND US

We heard about Cepro Yanesha through our partner Rhiane, from Progreso. Last summer, in the Milán Crossover event, we sat down with Gino and learned about their cooperative model, their interest in supporting original cultures in Perú, and their efforts to improve farmers' livelihood with coffee. We also tasted a beautiful batch of coffee flowers and decided to join forces. 

*With information taken from the book, in Spanish, "Detrás del Café Canephora" written by Cepro Yanesha.

 

Finding home

Francisco and  his father arrived in the community in 1973, although he didn’t plan to stay at first. He ended up becoming a community leader starting in 1983. At first, he worked with cattle farming, although he already had an interest in coffee. He is highly regarded in the community and works on preserving Yanesha culture and mythology, he also cares a lot about the yanesha language, making sure it doesn’t get lost. 

 
 

the biggest family

“In the village if it rains in January, from sunrise until sunset you go out in search of a little bit of wood. We’ve suffered. The first time I arrived on my land all I could say was: ‘this is my land, what came next?’ You clear a part of the land and make your house from leaves. It’s sad. You bring your food and when this runs out, you go back and work again to return to the mountain.” 

Mr. Cueva arrived in San Pedro from Huancayo when he was a little boy. His father, who was in the military and worked in construction, had received 150 hectares from the government during the Belaude regime. So, when he was 14 years old, he arrived in the new lands, but only stayed during the season, helping his father. Later on, when he turned 22, he decided to settle in the community and work with coffee. He is married and has seven children. Besides growing coffee they also harvest achiote and have cattle, hens, ducks, pigs. He also works in the mine for some extra income. When this happens, his wife is in charge of the rest of the activities. 

 
 

THE BEST NEIGHBOR TO HAVE

Herminio started working with coffee thanks to his friend and neighbor, Rogelio, who inspired him. He is one of the youngest producers and hopes to, one day, become a father and inspire his children to work with coffee. 

 
 

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RIVER

One must walk over an hour and a half to arrive at the San Pichanaz farmer's estates, crossing one or two rivers and risking a deadly snake bite or insect. One must also walk over tree trunks. "My estate is called Las Flores," says Leticia, "and to arrive here, you must cross a mighty river. In wintertime, the river cannot even be crossed. It's too big".

 

Leticia shares a few words with us, “The river is too mighty” she says.

 

DEEP INTO THE MOUNTAIN

Villagers in San Pedro de Pichanz have several ways to protect themselves from getting lost, tired, or confused in their journeys into the mountains. They usually chew coca leaves while walking, and they smoke tobacco before crossing a river. Tobacco smoke also helps as a mosquito repellant; they typically make the cigarettes themselves. They also have the custom of painting a dirt cross on their forehead. This protects them from the dangers that they can come across. It's impressive to imagine farmers taking these walks every day. Juan Martin is a proud Cepro Yansehsa member, and his estate is called "The Falcon," perhaps alluding to the clear and broad perspective this animal has in order to survive.

 

Juan Martín shares a few words with us.

 

FOR THE GOOD OF THE COMMUNITY

“To become someone that moves in the world for the good of the community, not for personal interests. Coffee needs to have quality and it reflects who we are.” 


Ronald is Monicas’ son and one of the youngest farmers in San Pedro. He had visited San Pedro but decided to stay when he inherited land from his grandparents. Today, he cultivates several coffee varieties, achiote, yuca, pituca and is  specialising in Robusta. He also spends his time hunting and fishing.

 
 

he who inspires

Rogelio has been living in San Pedro for 20 years but only recently discovered coffee. “Coffee has changed my life and given me everything I need,” he says. In San Pedro de Pichanz, Rogelio inspires his neighbors and friends to produce coffee. Such is the case of Herminio.

 
 

A loyal coffee partner

Rosalina arrived in San Pedro de Pichanaz in 1982 in search of an adventure. Soon after, she married Francisco Lopez, who was the community leader at that time. Although their  marriage didn’t last she ended up growing her own coffee and in 2014 became a Cepro Yanesha partner. Thanks to her efforts she built her own house and a warehouse. She is a strong woman, capable of taking her own decisions and facing others. She says what she thinks. “We have to be honest and always speak the truth,” she says. She runs her plot next to his son, Abelardo, who lives in one of her mother's houses. Besides growing coffee, they also harvest achiote.

 
 

COFFEE ALL THE WAY THROUGH

Julio arrived in 2002 to the community as a timber buyer. He really liked the place so he decided to stay and buy an estate. He was, in fact, running away from home. Coming from a big family with many brothers, some people wanted him dead because of disputes over his mother's legacy. Since he wasn't allowed to work with timber in San Pedro, he switched to coffee. Since 2011, coffee is all he does. 

 
 

EVERY DAY A LITTLE BETTER

Abelardo López is the son of an Ashanica mother and a Yanesha father. He was born in San Pedro de Pichanz. Thanks to Cepro Yaneshas’ support he’s been improving his coffee. With his wife, also of Yanesha descent, they raise their three kids. Rebeca works on road improvement and is interested in conserving the Yanesha language. While Rebeca works on the construction site, Abelardo is in charge of the coffee plot, the children and house chores. Their children usually join Abelardo on the estate.

 
 

THE BRAVEST THERE IS

In San Pedro de Pichanaz, all the farmers work together during harvesting in a practice called ayni. Everyone works without payment, but works for each other. This ancient practice, latent in prehispanic cultures, manifests itself in different ways. Angel called his estate “Los Bravos” which means in spanish “The Braves”. “Only the brave can make it to here” he says “the river is too mighty and a lot of cars have flipped on the way here.”

 

Angel shared a few words with us: “Only the brave dare to come to this region” he says.