Reaching the coffee lands of Peru is an arduous yet magical journey. Most international travel begins in the country's desert-like Pacific coast. From there, travelers make their way across the Andes, experiencing a wide range of ecosystems. The natural and cultural diversity of the Peruvian countryside showcases the country's rich variety of coffee flavors. However, challenges and hardships are ever-present throughout this experience.
Below are some thoughts from my latest trip to Peru.
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As I travel across the country in October, every climatic anomaly seems to be occurring. Harvesting ended a full 2 months ahead of schedule, wreaking havoc on shipping schedules and accentuating a severe shortage of coffee flow to mills and warehouses in the latter part of the season. Rains are late after a lengthy and scorching dry spell, raising concerns over new crop development. The production cycle is entirely out of sync with all four stages of coffee development witnessed in the same coffee tree: flowering, buds, growing cherry, and ripe cherry. Fires can be spotted in every direction from high atop the mountains. Coffee trees are stressed, just as much as the local coffee sector's talented and hardworking professionals.
As if these challenges weren't enough, given its seasonality, Peru found itself on the frontlines of Europe's Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). While I was in the country, the European Council agreed to delay the implementation of EUDR by one year, making it effective starting in 2026. However, the growers have already deployed all the hard work and investment to achieve compliance. One could expect them to feel frustrated, yet the opposite was true.
In a true example of Peru's resiliency, all cooperative members, leaders, and staff members I came across found positives in the EUDR exercise of geolocating every single farm to ensure it did not encroach on forest habitat. Growing areas in buffer zones or bordering natural reserves highlighted the highest deforestation risks. Now that these are precisely geolocated and identified with individual growers, proper mitigation plans and awareness campaigns can be enacted. The main lesson learned about EUDR in Peru is that coffee production represents a very small risk for additional deforestation. In fact, coffee can become the leader in maintaining biodiversity through agroforestry production systems.
Perched on a steep hillside on a lovely coffee farm in this vast mountainous region, growers pointed to the horizon. Areas dedicated to cattle, soy and other monoculture crops are now bereft of any forest canopy. The scorching heat is bearing down; the ground is dusty and arid, and the sky hazy. Across the hill, you can find a conventionally grown, chemically intensive, and 100% sun-grown coffee plot. Only 6 years into production, the soil has been completely washed out, the coffee trees depleted, and the farm abandoned. An ugly blemish in an otherwise verdant and healthy agroforestry ecosystem where smallholder growers tend to their coffee gardens.
Peru is the world's largest producer of certified organic coffee. The natural richness of its growing areas makes it ideal for organic production. And yet, Peru's high productivity rate under organic systems has consolidated its success. Driven mostly by smallholder producer cooperatives, Peru has one of the highest productivity rates for organic production across the world at 25 bags of parchment coffee per hectare. This is accomplished through an emphasis on specialized organic fertilizer production, soil enrichment, varietal optimization and agroforestry systems. These elements position Peru as one of the most climate-resilient coffee producers in the world.
Yet, one of the key dynamics I witnessed as growers adapt to climate change is that they are shifting away from being exclusively "coffee producers" and instead becoming agriculturalists. Crops like cacao, avocado, banana and citrus are now commonplace in smallholder farms. With this flexible mindset, their crops integrate into a production system. This approach helps navigate the boom-and-bust cycle of commodity markets and improves their chances of achieving a living income for their household.
With plenty of time to reflect as I make my way back across the Andes to catch the plane home, I recall a conversation with a young producer leader. As well positioned as Peru may be in facing today's coffee production challenges, he warned us to remain vigilant as the full extent of the impacts of a changing climate on coffee has yet to be thoroughly understood. In many ways, much of what we believe to be true about coffee is shifting and becoming questionable, it is upon all of us in the coffee industry to follow Peru's example and re-learn together if we are to sustain our beloved industry in the era of climate change.
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