On the farm, La Lucuma, Marcelino lives with his family and they are taking care of most of the work that need to be carried out, hiring eight pickers only during the harvest.
Within the family they had been spreading the workload in specific areas of responsibilities.
Marcelino is taking care of the administration and sales duties, his wife manage the post harvesting protocols, Franclin the oldest son is in charge to overview the picking, and the youngest son Yocner is the QC manager.
The Cajamarca region holds a lot of potential for quality coffee, with ideal growing conditions and great varieties, but quality is often lost in picking, processing and drying, with producers lacking infrastructure and knowledge. The most vulnerable producers are those that are unassociated – those who aren’t members of a cooperative, association or organisation – and they represent 75% of producers in Northern Peru. These producers don’t have access to training sessions or premiums for quality or certifications, and their income is totally dependent on the market price. Often, local aggregators – a buyer who lives in the same area – will come to the farm or house of a producer and buy their coffee for cash before selling it on; in some cases, directly to an exporter or more often to other traders and middlemen. This results in the producer being paid very little for their coffee and a lot of quality coffee is lost.