I recently returned from Peru, where I took one of our roaster customers to visit Sustainable Harvest®’s Peru office as well as coffee farms and mills in the country. It’s been a busy summer for our Peru office, with roasters from all over North America making the journey to discover the country’s coffee, and our staff working hard to lead them to unique coffees.
The “boots on the ground” we have in Peru are one of the traits that distinguishes Sustainable Harvest® from other coffee companies. Our Peru staff has an established presence in the country, with longstanding relationships with more than 30 coffee-producing organizations. These are meaningful bonds forged over many years, during which our staff has led trainings on cupping, price-risk management, delivery expectations, and more, helping to develop the organizations into stronger producers.
What’s more, we’ve also helped create a community among these organizations—through events like our Let’s Talk Coffee® Regional trainings, our suppliers have gone through trainings and eaten meals together, developing bonds that are closer to friendship than to competitiveness. Our Peru office is also known by producers throughout South America, with our Quality Specialist Oscar Gonzales—the first certified Q Grader in Peru—helping to train more than 40% of the certified Q Graders in Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia.
The frequent roaster visits of late have given our Peru staff the opportunity to demonstrate their expertise. Our office is located in Lima—a hub that is usually the first place visitors to Peru land. When roasters arrive in Peru we take them to our office, where a cupping table is set up featuring coffees from different regions in the country. When roasters identify coffees they like, we’re able to take them to the city of Piura to visit Norandino—a dry mill that processes coffee from many of our partner organizations in northern Peru—or to the farms themselves.
Our breadth of relationships in Peru allow us to cater to the diverse needs of roasters. If they need a high volume of coffee, we can connect them to a producing organization that can meet their demand. On the other hand, if they seek a unique micro-lot, our origin staff can draw on its deep knowledge of our producers—as well as cup an assortment of samples with the roaster—to discover that special coffee.
While roasters visiting our Peru office have seen the operation in action firsthand, you don’t need to travel to origin to experience the benefits of our boots on the ground in Peru. To learn more about our Peru operation and the excellent Peruvian coffees we have to offer, email trade@sustainableharvest.com today.
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