Las Mercedes y Anexos (2016) - Guatemala 2016 Verified listing

Agroforestal La Colina S.A., is an agricultural business that was born in 1958, when its original proprietor Coronel Victor Vicente Quilo Noriega bought the farm La Colina, later modifying his name to Colina San Jacinto increasing its coffee cultivation area to 44 manzanas (30.8 hectares). In 1960 he constructed a coffee mill which operated with a hydraulic tire using the El Molino river. During this time the owners of the farm dedicated to buying coffee in cherry of different areas until in 1970 they bought Las Mercedes y Anexos with an area of 512 mz (358 hectares) and Rio de las Piedras with an area of 384 manzanas (268 hectares). This gave him the opportunity to process coffee only from his farm. Then the farm starts to qualitatively grow coffee paying special attention to shade management, and specific fertilization programs. Currently the farm is agronomically managed by Quilo Ayuso, third generation of the family.

Farm Las Mercedes y Anexos is located in aldea El Terreno, Mataquesquintla Jalapa at an altitude of 1585 meters above sea level. The total area of the farm is 358.4 hectares of which only 84 hectares are dedicated to produce coffee specifically Bourb—n, Typical, catuai, pache and caturra varieties.

All of the coffee comes from privately owned coffee farms which are approximately 2500 to 3300 quintals of green coffee processed in a wet mill and sun dried in patios.

Regarding certifications, we have CAFÉ PRACTICES with Starbucks for many years while they were buying our coffee. Currently we have Rainforest Alliance and Climate Module.

For the coming years we are preparing coffee plants with new varieties Pacamara, Maragogypes and others.

The rest of the farm is dedicated to sustainable silviculture, in a program of 24 cicles (years). The cicle starts with tree nurseries, which we then plant, grow, and maintain to produce wood and provide our wood plant. Fun fact: we have an aereal photo of 1965 and one from 2005 where you can see that there are more trees in 2005 than there were in 1965.

Our slogan is: Plant, produce, and grow sustainably.