Gerardo Mejía, El Tontolo Farm
My father was the first person in our region to start growing Fair Trade and organic certified coffee. He knew it would be beneficial...
for our family, but also for the people I employed, and to help preserve the environment in our fragile region.
Now it's my turn. I'm 34 years old (2021) and I want to be part of the positive change in our country. My generation has far more access to information than any previous generation. We no longer want to live with such a lack of opportunities, burdened by debt, with 70% of our population living in poverty, often extreme poverty—that is, less than $2 a day.
I'm convinced that modern technology can help us create a better and fairer world. Coffee lovers of my generation know that people in wealthy countries pay twice as much for a single cup of coffee at their favorite café as many people in my country spend in an entire day on rent, education, healthcare, food, and clothing! That's why I'm so happy that Cafesmo is part of the Algrano platform. It allows us to connect with roasters, work with them, understand their needs, and learn from each other. At the same time, we receive a fairer price for our coffees than we would otherwise.
I don't work on my farm full-time because I also run the local gas station and need to be there most of the time. So I'm usually on the farm from 6 to 9 in the morning, and then I'm at the gas station until mid-afternoon. We recently opened a coffee shop at the gas station, and we all took a two-day barista course. Now we're the only gas station around that serves a more than decent cup of coffee. From our own beans, of course ☺.
In the second part of the afternoon, I usually return to the farm, but I have someone who's there all day to manage the harvesting team during the harvest season. He works with me year-round, and I wouldn't know what to do without him!
Once the coffee is harvested and pulped, we take it to Cafesmo for drying and processing. The Cafesmo team is very experienced and does a better job than I do, but we make sure to pick only the ripest beans for our best lots to achieve a consistent and clean profile. This is how we can produce consistent, top-quality lots with Cafesmo's help. It's also what allows us to generate additional income, since we can't live on what we get paid for conventional bulk lots.
We look forward to working with you!
Property details
21 hectares between 1150 and 1300 meters .
60% shade, 40% sun across most of the land; in some parts, 50%-50%. Mostly native trees, also including plane and orange trees.
80% Parainema , and some Catuaí and a little Anacafé-14 .
The farm is fair trade and certified organic .
The farm is certified by the Rain Forest Alliance .
