Project Tecapa Chaparrastique
A new process for La Alpina
When
Project started in November 2022
Where
Volcán Chaparrastique
Who
Producers from the municipality of Chinameca, Jucuapa
Presentation of the project
What is the context?
Growing coffee in El Salvador is becoming increasingly difficult. The causes include population and urban growth, climate change, labour shortages and producers' difficulty in covering their production costs.
La Alpina is a farm located at the foot of the Chaparrastique volcano, where tourism has become a better option than coffee for investors in the region. It is owned by producer Cyrille Beraud.
During the 2022/23 harvest, this farm experienced a number of additional problems. These included the higher cost of selective harvesting, strong seismic activity at the Chaparrastique volcano, which delayed the start of harvesting, and the desire to produce a large volume of natural coffees for the first time.
What does the project involve?
To support La Alpina, Belco became involved in buying and marketing the farm's coffees internationally. The Belco El Salvador team has also supported La Alpina in the production of natural coffees.
What are the objectives?
The aim of the Tecapa Chaparrastique project is to develop a natural process adapted to the climatic conditions on the farm and in the Finca La Alpina processing area, in order to market :
- 1 container of Bourbon, using a natural process
- 1 to 3 bags of an experimental batch in the Raisin Honey process
Complete documentation
Page in PDF and QRCode in all languages
Discover the coffee linked to this project
How far has the project got?
November 2022
Step 1
The first stage of the project with finca La Alpina involved analysing our proposals in the field and assessing the drying and storage infrastructures available.
December 2022 - February 2023
Step 2
Following these analyses, we were able to launch the project. Firstly, we analysed and improved La Alpina's training in selective harvesting. After the harvest, it was analysed and checked by our quality team.
March - April 2023
Step 3
Over the following months, quality control continued until the PSS (pre-shipment samples) were analysed.
May - June 2023
Step 5
Finally, the last stage was to add value to the project, by calculating the cost of the project. And, of course, exporting the coffee produced and dried in the natural process.
Project results
$7750
The gains made by La Alpina in marketing its coffee, compared with the previous year for the same quantity.
7,70%
The rate of return on the La Alpina finca project.
+1,5
The improvement in the SCA score obtained by Finca La Alpina's plain coffees, with 83.5 points compared with 82 for washed coffees the previous year.