As we enter 2026, we begin our 9th year working alongside the incredible Los Chelazos coffee growing community in La Palma, Chalatenango. A partnership born out of wanting to forge a more engaged, impactful and lasting relationship with smallholders from a lesser known region in El Salvador.
By sourcing a component for our house blend in this way, we felt our purchases would be better spent within a community such as this, rather than lining the pockets of an estate owner in Santa Ana who already had easy access to the specialty market. We believed that as the demand for ’The Docks’ grew, the level of impact we could have with this producer group would scale alongside our increasing volume requirements. We received our first lot in the summer of 2017 and as expected, this coffee quickly became crucial for our business.
With this success in mind, we wanted to explore how we could increase our level of engagement in this partnership and set about researching the requirement for support amongst the growers we worked with.
Understanding Where Support Was Needed
We looked to our export partner Caravela, who made the introduction to the Los Chelazos producer group and have since been integral in helping this relationship flourish. Using their network of agronomists, we were able to gain insight into each producer we had worked with to date and ascertain where we should direct our attention and resources in order to have the most positive impact possible. Lead by knowledgeable agronomist Miguel, the PECA analysts share a close relationship with each producer and have an in-depth understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each farm.
The main focus of their work is aimed at helping producers improve coffee quality and yield. This research suggested infrastructure improvements were required on Finca Margarita, a small 2 hectare farm owned by María Zoila Piñeda and that raised drying beds would be the best place to start. With only a small patio available for drying prior to the project, this would greatly increase the amount of coffee María could dry at any one time along with the control she could have over the process to improve quality and the income she could make from her coffee.
Our First Impact Project: Finca Margarita
Off the back of this research, our first co-funded Impact Project came into existence. A project designed to create a more viable business model and certain future in coffee for María and her workers. Over the course of 5 years, infrastructure improvements and post-harvest processing upgrades have been put in place and gone on to strengthen the foundations of Finca Margarita - improving coffee quality, increasing income and creating conditions for a more resilient and dignified livelihood in coffee.
However, it wasn’t always plain sailing… we experienced the highs of initially seeing the positive results in both increased quality and yield thanks to the building of her raised beds, solar dryer and micro-wet mill… to the lows of recent climate-change related events - excessive rainfall, hurricane-force winds, incidences of crop disease - that went on to reverse some of the hard work achieved previously.
Returning to Finca Margarita
After hearing of these challenges and the damage that occurred to the infrastructure we helped fund, we felt it important to re-visit Finca Margarita, check in with the PECA team and try and work out what the next steps were for the ‘El Salvador Project’. Not only did this trip allow us to catch up with María, it was the perfect opportunity to meet more of the producers that contribute to Chelazos and deepen our relationship with both the community and Caravela’s team on the ground. We arrived at Finca Margarita and were blown away by María’s positivity and beyond inspired by her future plans. Most would be disheartened by the decrease in quality and reduced yield María experienced over the course of 2023-24 but she remained resolute throughout.
Motivated by the initial results of the new drying beds and determined to overcome previous storm-related damage, María had already reinvested in her drying infrastructure. In addition to this, she had planted a large number of native trees which will go on to act as a barrier, further mitigating against the potential negative impact of anymore incidences of high winds. Cooking and sanitary facilities had also been built to tackle another of the main challenges in the area, a dwindling labour force. These new facilities should create a more attractive proposition for potential pickers in the area going forwards and ensure María has access to reliable workers who are committed to picking only the ripest coffee cherries. And crucially, for the short-term, it was incredibly positive to see a 50% increase in volume and newly renovated trees producing beautiful looking Pacamara, suggesting that a bumper harvest of high quality coffee was on its way.
What the Project Has Achieved
The main goal of our initial investment into Finca Margarita 7 years ago was to test whether infrastructure improvements such as those implemented in the ‘El Salvador Project’ could go on to address one of the biggest challenges facing the coffee industry and positively impact “producers into becoming more motivated to stay in coffee”. After re-visiting María, we believe that the project has achieved exactly what it set out to do. Both yield and quality is back up to where it once was in 2022 (post-infrastructure improvements and pre-climate change related challenges) and the project has contributed to better living conditions for María and the people who work on her farm. The average price we paid for María’s most recent crop of Pacamara was $3.18 USD/lb which is above the minimum prosperity price of Caravela’s ‘prosperity prices model’, ensuring that Maria was able to pay both her cost of production and costs of living.
Most notably, María has clearly been inspired to continue investing in her farm with the renewed goal of producing even higher quality coffee. Her son Oscar has also joined the operation and is now a frequent presence on the farm, marking a meaningful step towards generational renewal and safeguarding the future of coffee production at Finca Margarita.
What Comes Next
So what next? How do we follow and ultimately scale this success? First and foremost, we have committed to showcasing an additional microlot alongside Maria’s pacamara, from another producer that contributed to Los Chelazos this year. Eric Roberto Landaverde’s natural Gesha is the first of our ‘Chelazos Producer Series’ which signifies an increased investment into the wider community, deepening the engagement and connection we have to this producer group. We have also taken learnings from our last visit and are now looking into developing an impact fund that will allow us to be more intentional with our project work going forwards. After visiting a number of Chelazos producers it became apparent that various levels of support and investment may be required, considering each producer has specific needs based on their farm’s terroir - level of shade, soil health, altitude, access to water etc. In general, coffee production is not a “one size fits all” approach due to the unique challenges each origin faces and we want this fund to be available to all supply chains we work within.
The success of the El Salvador Project wasn’t just a result of the physical improvements to María’s infrastructure, it was down to a shift in mindset after seeing what is achievable with the right investment. It would have been easy to give up after the challenges María faced in 2023-24 but her unwavering trust in Caravela’s agronomists and drive to continue producing high quality coffee against all odds is where the real success lies. The fund will hopefully go on to fuel many other success stories like María’s. Giving us the ability to invest in multiple initiatives across the year that uplift coffee-growing communities, promote environmental sustainability and go on to create a more viable business model and certain future in coffee for the producers we work with.
Watch this space for updates in the near future!