Jose Nicanor Zurita’s farm sits at 1,900 metres above sea level, and occupies around 4 hectares. He primarily grows Red and Yellow Caturra and Yellow Bourbon. Our founder Eddie had the pleasure of visiting La Huaca at the end of last year; ‘it was very beautiful, and one of the most trecherously steep farms I’ve visited - a lot of my attention was devoted to not falling over!’.
Jose sells his cherry for processing and exporting to JJMARCK, owned by Juan Carlos and his father. JJMARCK’s work is notable as they commit to buying all the cherry produced by the farmers they work with, as opposed to buying to quota. They pay ahead for the cherry at the parchment price (the price paid once the coffee has been processed) - essentially the farmers receive the same money for less work, whilst allowing JJMARCK more consistency across processing. When Juan started up a few harvests ago, they were producing around 6 kilos of coffee. Now, they are producing over 18,000.
Seasonal buying is about seeing coffee as a crop not a commodity, buying in harmony with the growing seasons to enjoy coffee at its best. This kind of buying has always been the backbone of our business and it’s something we’ve improved and refined every year.
