Santa Sofia - El Salvador 2008 Verified listing

Overview

In 1890, Manuel Trujillo handed the farm down to his daughter Sofia Trujillo de Pacas. Sofia handed it to her son, Alfredo Pacas Trujillo, and this cycle was repeated, as his son, Ernesto Pacas Diaz and his wife Blanca Stella inherited the farm. The Santa Sofia farm was once part of a larger farm named “San Rafael”, on which the Pacas variety mutated from Bourbón. Alberto Pacas Figueroa, Sofia’s husband, first noticed this natural mutation. Santa Sofia is the only farm in the Salvadoran auction that has won the competition 5 times, beginning with 17th place in 2003, climbing up to place 14th in 2004, 9th place in 2005, reaching 4th place in 2006, and appearing again this year in 32nd place. “Santa Sofia” is definitely a “consistently high quality coffee” synonym. The Pacas family is very proud that their hard work has been recognized one more time, and these good vibes give them an extra push to ensure quality. The farm has been using a very small quantity of agrochemicals for more than 10 years. Their use is reserved for cases when weed or pests propagate more than usual, otherwise manual control and integrated pest management is used. Shade trees are of a native species that are replanted every year, although Ingas are also used for this purpose. Santa Sofia earned since 2006 the ISO 9001-2000 certification. At the farm level, this certificate means a complete registry and documentation of each activity perform, including several control points and measures. As an example of this, they check harvest procedure such as percentage of ripe beans, chemical usage and ecological standards. From December through March up to 30 people help with the harvest. From April though December 6 people maintained the coffee fields performing cultural practices such as pruning, weed control, among others. Santa Sofia’s coffee trees average 60 years old ranging from 90 to 6 years old, and are planted in densities of 3,170 trees per hectare. This coffee lot was processed under a semiwashed method at Vivagua mill, property of Pacas Martinez S.A. de C.V.

Additional information

Location: Canton Palo de Campana, Santa Ana
Average Annual Rainfall: 2,500 mm
Average Temperature: 20ºC
Type of Soil: Sandy loam
Type of Shade: Ingas, Liquidambar, chapultapa, ujushte, among others
Annual Production: 180 bags (60kg)
Mill and company where lot was process: Beneficio Vivagua, Exportadora Pacas Martinez S.A.

GPS Coordinates

Latitude: 13º 52 33.8 N
Longitude: 89º 36 38.7 W