Guatemala La Union

La Union farm is in San Pedro Necta, in a region with the same name “La Union”. Carlos Rivas and his son, Javier Rivas started to develop the farm in 2017, after participating in a coffee field evaluation in San Pedro Necta as agronomist. After realizing the great potential of the region, they decided to purchase the land to materialize the knowledge in the field. All the coffee was replaced and started from ground, focused on quality.

Carlos, besides being agronomist, took the Processing course from CQI to learn what best practices could be suitable the the farm. Javier, also agronomist, took the Q grader course to understand from the quality perspective, the impact of the varietals and processing.

They were selected as experimental plot for the World Coffee Research, monitoring 22 varieties for evaluation in the
region, however, they are focusing now on Pacamara, Geisha, Anacafe 14, Catuai and Villa Sarchi as the primary producion at the farm.

They have experienced that pre-fermentation (in cherry) has led to quality and has been the key to be awarded in some coffee quality contest in 2023 and 2024, including Cup of Excellence. They also have a weather station in the farm that allows them to understand the weather better.

Carlos has been involved in the coffee industry for a lifetime, as a technician supporting multiple farms, however, now with the support of Javier, his son, have discovered new ways to do farm, processes and variety, becoming one of the innovating farms in the region.