reconnecting to his roots

Long-term friend of Silvio and Rene, he left Nicaragua in the 1980s and grew up in Maryland, USA. For many years, he worked as an electrician in the US (until a serious workplace accident involving an electric shock nearly took his life. Recovery was long and difficult, and he still struggles with limited use of his hand.) Yet, the longer he stayed away, the stronger the call to return grew. It was as if life itself was nudging him back to his roots — to reconnect with the land and start farming coffee.

When he purchased Finca Las Maravias, the land was barren. But in less than a decade, thanks to a smart mix of fast-growing trees like guava, banana, and coffee, the farm began to thrive. Water lines were restored, flowing freely across the property and even reaching the small town below. While the farm isn’t strictly organic, he strives to live in harmony with nature.

Daily life on the farm is no small task. He must bring pickers to and from the fields every day, and during heavy rains, the journey can take up to three hours each way, as the roads become too muddy. When conditions get really tough, he and his neighbours (His direct neighbor is Juan Ramon, by the way.) repair the roads themselves.

CULTIVARS

Catimor, Parainema, Margogype, Maracaturra,

elevation

Between 1220-1330 meters

NOTABLE

Fredy makes sure the workers who help him on the farm have good working and living conditions for a decent life. He invests in improving the infrastructure of their accommodation, like building better showers, bathrooms, good dorms to facilitate a good working environment. He is proud of his farmers and grateful for their help and happy to support their families during their time in his farm.

PROCESSING

Natural : Ripe red cherries are picked and are transported carefully in boxes towards the drying area to avoid loss of mucilage and is spread out on the patio for sun drying until desired moisture is reached.
Honey: Ripe red cherries are picked and let to rest for 30-32 hours after which it is depupled, vaccum packed with all the mucilage, letting it ferment for about 6-8 hours before it is taken out to dry until the desired moisture is reached.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

2026 SAMPLES

Fredy Vallecillo - natural
Fredy Vallecillo - honey

The price you pay for Fredy’s washed and natural coffee p/kg. We agreed on this price directly with the farmers, disregarding the volatile US Coffee C price.
Here the farm gate is inclusive of the all the costs incurred by the farmer to also deliver the coffees to the mill. Depending on whether the farmer owns a mill or drying facility, we have facilitated a contract in cooperation with our farmer friends and exporting partners to invoke the rest of services needed to get the green coffee ready for export. All the farmers in the Nicaraguan ensemble are paid a fixed price for their coffees (Washed/Natural). Farmers are paid premium price for their experimental processing methods.
Santa Lucila is a dry milling and export facility. It offers various services including milling, grain pro & jute bag purchase and designing, exporting the coffees between Nicaragua and Netherlands. Depending on the services required by the farmer, Santa Lucila is flexible in it’s arrangement. This farmer requires all the services offered by Santa Lucila. Moncho requires only export services from Santa Lucila
International shipping from Ocotal Nicaragua to Rotterdam, Netherlands. It is inclusive of freight, customs, insurance and warehousing costs.
Average financing cost owed to (mostly social) lenders. This ensures immediate payment to the farmers when the coffee leaves the farm or port.This is also includes stock surchage, storage fee and customs
A standard TSU premium on all coffees designated exclusively to accelerate farmers’ own regenerative agriculture project.Read more about the regenerative projects done by Ramon here. (Link coming soon).
This Side Up compensation for spending time and resources importing this coffee. Our work includes year-round contact with producers, managing export, shipping, import, warehousing, grading, sampling, finding and keeping roasting partners for Fredy € 1,34 is This Side Up’s Model 1 markup. For a full overview of our modular margin construction, see the Trade Models page