HONDURAS
Fernando Romero

Fernando Alvarado Romero is the owner of Fina El Triunfo which is a 8 ha farm situated 20km outside the town of Corquin close to the Celaque mountain. On the farm he has teh varietale IHCAFE 90, Lempira, Parainema and Red Catuai. On the farm there are also many fruit trees such as mandarin, lemons, bananas and guayabas. Don Fernando is 80 years old and lives with his wife María Olimpia Molina and they have 7 children who help them on teh farm still. Don Fernando has been a member of Aruco since the start of the cooperative and is still very hands on with his farm making sure everything is done well and to maintain the qualities of the coffees they produce.

All the processing for the ML’s takes place at the Aruco mill to centralise and have greater control over the process to create consistent procedures but also to reduce the risk on the producer. The mill is also at 800masl which gives a drier more stable climate to dry the coffee compared to up at the farms where the weather can be less predictable.

The coffee will be delivered to the mill where they assess the cherry (take Brix) and decide on the process for the coffees depending on space and what the producer has done already. The cherry is cleaned and washed and then floated to remove any immatures.

The coffee is then taken to the beds where it is dried for between 20 -30 days weather depending where it is turned hourly.