El Salvador's Coffee Production
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San Salvador, El Salvador, January to November 2006 January – Women In Coffee Tour- This tour was organized by Karen Cebreros, from International Women’s Coffee Alliance and President of Elan Organic Coffee, tour operator Sandra Braun and our Association. Among our visitors we had representatives from companies like Timothys’s and SwissWater from Canada; Green Mountain and Café Imports from the USA. Our goal was to show the participants, El Salvador’s excellent coffee quality by experiencing first hand the whole process from picking to the milling process as well as the quality of the cup. We visited farms, mills as well as archeological sites. The result was the increase in sales of our members specialty coffees and a closer relationship between buyers and salers.
February- Commercial Mission to Washington D.C. and New York.- The Itzalco Association was selected to attend commercial mission, in Washington D.C. and New York, from feb. 5th to the 11th. , where we meet with companies like Coffee America Corp., Paragon Coffee Trading, Rosthfos Corp. Due to a visit to Don Shoenholt of Gillies Coffee and thanks to him, an article of El Salvadors coffee was published in the May/June issuee of this year, of the Roast Magazine. March – CQI Consultant visit As part of our commitment to our members, the Itzalco through the CQI Voluntear Program, had the visit and assestment of Luis F. Velez from Colombia for San Jose de la Majada Coop. on their coffee shop and also on their roasting plant. He also gave a seminar on coffee shops with a total of 49 attendees, Luis also had meeting with our members. April- LOU between the SCAA and the Itzalco Fine Coffee AssociationDuring the SCAA 18th annual Conference & Exhibition, held in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Itzalco Fine Coffee Association and the SCAA signed a Letter of Understanding in recognition of a common purpose to promote the production and consumption of specialty coffees through out the world, becoming thus members of the International Relations Committee.May – El Salvador Cup Of Excellence 2006 Winners 11 farms of our members clasified in the 4th edition of El Salvador Cup of Excellence 2006. Santa Sofía Farm, own by Pacvil S. A. de C.V., and milled by Exportadora Pacas Martínez, S. A. de C. V. and El Ángel Fram, owned by Patricia Molina Battle, milled by Coop. Cuzcachapa de R.L. both of them of the Borbón variety obtained Presidential awards.
June- Cup of Excellence 2006 Auction The COE Auction was held on June 29th, obtaining great prices all our winning members. August – End of the 2005-2006 Harvest Cocktail August 31st. , we celebrated the end of the 2005 – 2006 harvest by having a cocktail for all our members and their producers, in which we handed out diplomas in recognition to all our winning members of all four COE winners and a special recognition to PACVIL S.A. de C.V. for being Santa Sofia Farm, the only winning farm in the four editions. As special guess we had the presence of Ricardo Espitia, Excecutive Director of the Salvadoran Coffee Council and Willem Boot, of Boot Coffee Consultants. September – Future Markets and Coffee Commercialization Seminars Sept. 7th we held the first Module of 4, of the Future Markets and Coffee Commercializarion, called Futures and Market Analisis, the speaker was Ernesto Telles. The seminar was a great success. We had more than the maximum capacity with 23 persons. October – Chris Hallien and USAID Evaluators Visit We had the visit for a couple of weeks of Chris Hallien, him and his wife spend some time at a farm to lived first hand experience, what it takes to harvest coffee, he also visited Coop. San Jose de la Majada Mill and El Carmen Mill, they also had a chance to do some touring and visit archeological sites and our beatiful beaches. At the end of his vist Chris gave a seminar on the difference between the SCAA and the NYBOT Classification System, to our members quality control person. We also had the visit of 5 USAID evaluators regarding the results of a couple programs financed by USAID through Winrock. With Ricardo Hernandez Winrock International – Farmer to Farmer Program rep, we had the chance visit the Apaneca – Ilamatepec Mountain Range, stoping on our way at the San Jose de La Majada Coop and El Carmen Mill. November- Future Markets and Coffee Commercialization SeminarWe held our 2nd Module of the Future Markets and Coffee Commercialization Seminar called Fisical Market, which was also a great success. Some of members are assisting to SINTERCAFE, in San Jose, Costa Rica. We are already working on our Feb. 2007 tour, for more information please log on to our web site: www.itzalcocoffee.com Information, comments or sugestions, please contact: “El Salvador is the best kept secret in Central America. You can find more 100% Bourbon than most people realize. It is a beautiful sweet smooth medium body coffee that should be part of all roasters programs. The US would really like to see more certified organic socially responsible coffees offered from El Salvador”. Karen Cebreros from Elan Organic Coffee
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