Villalobos {O} - Bolivia 2005 Verified listing

Benigno VillalobosI have 8 children, one is married and my other children study in El Alto, and we pay the rent. With what I get, I’ll buy a piece of land in the city, in the Villa Loza Area. My wife and I come from the Jose Manuel Pando Province, by Charana, and we have lived in Chijchipani for 30 years already. It is the second time I participate in the Cup of Excellence, I already competed in 2004. I am very happy because I qualified; I had never won in any other contest, but I’ll keep on participating. This year it was very difficult because I had to work with all my family, but I am at peace because I have now handled well all the processes despite the fact that I am sure that we have to improve even more. Next year I am thinking of competing with more coffee. It is important for me, I am in love with coffee, I also have citrus and vegetables, but mainly coffee. Quality Practices The ripe coffee cherry harvest is done manually, process in which the whole family intervenes during the tour months that the harvest takes, from May to September; the coffee cherry is immersed in water in order to do the first selection of vain coffee beans. The pulping is done in a wooden pulper immediately alter the daily coffee collection is finished. The coffee is fermented during a period of 15 hours, after which the mucilage is separated. This coffee is manually washed with clean water coming from natural slopes that the mountains of the Bolivian Yungas region. The coffee drying is done on tables totally exposed to the sun.

Other Statistics:

Soil type : sandy clay loam Annual precipitation : 2.000 mm/year Shade type : Inga edulis, Cedro