Ecuador
Identity record
Capital city
Quito Coffee area
60,000ha Average farm area
1.2ha Geography
Arabica is grown from 1.200 masl to up to 2.500 masl; 100 masl to 400 masl in Galapagos Islands. Robusta is grown in low lands in Amazonia and Pacific Coast Historical regions Manabí, Loja, Zaruma New coffee belt Noroccidente de Pichincha (Chocó andino) and Loja (Southern dry lands) Harvest period
May - July Secondary harvest
June - September Number of coffee growers
50000 Number of people living from the coffee industry
200000 Number of harvests per year
1 - 2 Bag production per year
300000 Main varieties
Bourbon, Castillo, Caturra, Colombia, Robusta, Sidra, Typica
Coffee production areas
Click on the area you want to observe
Loja
The Loja region is located in the south of Ecuador, at the foot of the Andes, on the border with Peru, near the Piura Forest. For the people of Loja, coffee is more than a product, it's a heritage. Coffee has been grown in the region for almost 200 years.
Loja has a well-defined dry season from July to November, which is ideal for farming. At lower altitudes there are valleys and plains where sugar cane and corn are grown. In the mid-altitude zone, there are mountains with coffee plantations, traditionally grown using wet methods, and cattle ranches, while at highaltitudes cattle are the mainstay.
The extraordinary longevity of its inhabitants has earned Vilcabamba the nickname of the Valley of the Centenarians. This has given rise to a myth of an idyllic valley, which has led many retired Americans to invest in the coffee plantations, particularly in Malacatos, in search of 'eternal youth'.
Pichincha
Located on the Pacific slopes of the Andes at an altitude of between 1200 and 2400 metres above sea level, Pichincha straddles both hemispheres (latitude 0°, 0', 0''). Between lush vegetation and arid desert, it is a region of contrasts. It is home to the Chocó Andino Nature Reserve, which boasts the greatest diversity of flora and fauna in the country.
Pichincha is a new player in the production of speciality coffees. Concentrated in the foothills of the Andes at an altitude of over 1700m, small-scale producers wanted to diversify their cattle and sugar cane activities with Arabica plantations. So they planted a number of prestigious botanical varieties, resulting in some of the best coffee in the world!
Harvest periods
| Region | January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loja | ||||||||||||
| Pichincha |
The coffee sector from the country
The sector
Ecuador produces both Arabica and Robusta. Coffee used to be part of the top ten exported products but disapeared from statistics during the last two decades while cocoa production was getting every year higher.
The coffee region is mountainous and 90% of producers own small lands (1.2 hectares on average). During the last decade a specialty coffee production arose boosted by high prices and a new type of farmer appeared taking advantage of an unique availability of fancy varieties (Typica Mejorado, Sidra, Nestlé) and special growing conditions.
Geography
Main actors
60% of all coffee exports comes from El Café a soluble producer. 5 firms export more than 90%. The first green coffe exporter (Fapecafe) is ranked 6th with 2% of all coffee export incomes. Due to the high prices, some producers export themselves by air (direct trade).
Export Ports
There are several harbours : Guayaquil, Manta, Machala and Esmeraldas all on Pacific coast.
Belco, Ecuador
From 2006 on, Belco is importing one or two containers yearly mainly filled with estate and micro lots.
Sourcer's word
Colombia remains one of the world's leading coffee-producing countries. Its regions and their varieties, stretching from the north of the country (on the border with Venezuela) to the south (on the border with Ecuador) along the three cordilleras, practically make the country a coffee continent in itself. The coffee sector is probably one of the most structured in the world, with a powerful National Federation that remains the largest exporter and distributes coffee to the major cooperatives in these different regions.
In this context, we focus a significant part of our energy on working with producer associations, which are smaller and certainly less organized than cooperatives, but offer us direct access to more exclusive regions and the coffee growers who cultivate them. Without excluding small to medium-sized farms, we work with them to offer fine plantation coffees and, with much effort and patience, develop micro-lots that reflect the identity and care given by the men and women who grow them.
We offer roasters coffees with full traceability, providing contextualized transparency so they can best share it with their end customers. These coffees are of exceptional quality not only in the cup, but also in terms of fair remuneration for the producer and environmental sustainability.
As the Colombian branch is part of a group with robust logistical and financial capabilities, we are able to deliver coffee to all corners of the globe.
Angel Barrera
The producers
Arnaud Causse
Angel Reyes
Leopoldo Andrade
Mateo Patiño, Gilda Carrascal, Andy Davalos
