Friday, February 1, 2008

Organic Peruvian Coffee

What Is The Organic Peruvian Coffee?

You must have heard a lot of about the organic Peruvian coffee as this is one of the best organic coffees in the world. However, very few people know anything about Peru, the farmers who grow this coffee or the coffee itself (other than its exquisite taste).

A Few Words On Peru And The Coffee Production In This Country

You will find Peru located in Western South America between Chile and Ecuador gifted with all types of climate from the below zero frigid cold in the Andes Mountains to the purely tropical weather in the Eastern side to the purely arid desert climate in the Western side.

Peru started producing coffee as early as 1700 AD. Today, after more than two centuries have passed, Peru is still a major coffee producer with about 110 thousand coffee growers which produce about sixty percent of the total exported coffee.

The specialty of the organic Peruvian coffee, as the name amply suggests is that it is among the very few places in the world where coffee is grown organically, in the shade. The organic Peruvian coffee comes from Arabica plants. The other popular coffee plant is the Coffee Robusta.

The farms are usually primitive and bereft of the trappings of the modern world. In a way maybe this is the reason why the organic Peruvian coffee is still among the best in the world. The modern world has not had a chance to spoil it yet with advanced technology and inputs.

Since the farms are small – about two to three hectares – each one is set up with micro-wet-milling operations, which has been instrumental in maintaining the waters of Peru clear and unpolluted.

The coffee plants are grown in shade and their ripe cherries are picked from May to September after which they are passed on to trained for the purpose people who pulp them and put them into fermentation tanks. The beans that result from this process are transported by mules or by foot to the nearest market which would be about a few hours from the farm.

The price of the beans however depends upon the demand available. When there are few buyers (sometimes there would be only one) the price of the beans falls rapidly as there are no warehouses to store the beans and without storing facilities the beans would deteriorate fast and would have to be thrown.

Over the last decade, more than 25 percent of these unorganized sector farmers have joined the cooperative movements which in turn have linked with the Fair Trade organic networks to propel the organic Peruvian coffee growers onto the place of the second largest coffee suppliers in the world after Mexico. Now they get both the right price and he right recognition.

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