Edith Chinchay and Jhony Llantoy from central Peru have decided to make a living as farmers. With the support of our partner organization CEDEPAS in Pichanaki, they grow first-class coffee beans. Some of their harvest is sent directly to Switzerland, where the beans are roasted by hand and sold as specialty coffee “café joven” by a creative small business in Basel. Edith and Jhony tell their story during a visit at the end of the rainy season in April 2021.
“My name is Edith Chinchay, …
… I am 25 years old and live with my parents and a younger brother on our coffee farm. It is very remote. The nearest town, Pichanaki, is an hour and a half away by car.
As a schoolgirl, I had to walk two hours to school every day. I later trained as an interior decorator in Huancayo, the capital of the department, but couldn’t find a job afterwards. That’s why I went back to the coffee farm where I grew up.
We farm four hectares of coffee with my parents, and I am responsible for one and a half hectares on my own. I also grow bananas and vegetables and have opened a small store on the street where I sell vegetables and other foodstuffs.
But coffee is my most important product and that’s why I want to improve its quality. I have been taking part in CEDEPAS training courses for three years and have become a member of the APACE producers’ association. CEDEPAS has taught me how to process my coffee beans better so that I can achieve better quality.
During the coronavirus pandemic, we were unable to harvest most of our coffee because no workers came and there was no transportation. CEDEPAS helped us out with food. But above all, I am grateful to CEDEPAS because I now know how to set up a new drying rack for the coffee so that it turns out well.
Now all I have to do is select good coffee beans, monitor the fermentation process closely and finally dry the coffee beans. I really hope that my coffee will make it into the next export shipment, which we can export directly to Switzerland thanks to CEDEPAS.
I dream of making my own specialty coffee and running my own café. And I want to keep chickens and open a large store for the farmers in the area. I will also sell my homemade cakes and tarts here – with good coffee from my own production, of course.
Many people move to the city because they don’t know any better, because they don’t know what you can do here in the countryside. I hope that my future children will also live in the countryside, because here you can grow your own crops and be your own boss.”
“My name is Jhony Llantoy, …
…I am 32 years old, married and have two children. One child is nine years old, the other was born just a few weeks ago. Even as a child, I accompanied my parents to the coffee field at our finca (farm, editor’s note) near the town of Pichanaki. Today, I grow the coffee myself.
It’s good business if you can produce a first-class specialty coffee and have your finca well under control. CEDEPAS has helped me to constantly improve the quality of my coffee. But they have also given us good tips in other areas. For example, I grow vegetables and keep chickens – not only do we provide for ourselves, but we also make ends meet when the money from the coffee harvest runs out.
CEDEPAS also helped us to set up our producers’ association for young coffee farmers, APACE. We are 60 young people there and I am the president.
Three years ago, thanks to the mediation of CEDEPAS and terre des hommes schweiz, we were able to export our best specialty coffee directly to Switzerland for the first time. That was a great feeling, because exporting is very difficult for a small association or for me alone.
It has paid off financially. The profit is around 30 percent higher than when we sell on the local market. I remember how we sent the load in September 2018 and I got my cheque in December. That might have been a Merry Christmas, because otherwise the money from the harvest in July and August usually doesn’t last until the end of the year.
My dream is for us as a producer association to achieve a common quality standard, produce more and be able to export 100% of our production directly. To achieve this, we need to work on the quality of our coffee and on our organization.
It is difficult for small farmers or associations to comply with all the necessary permits and requirements. We are currently in the process of organic certification. It would be great if our partners in Switzerland could open up further markets for our direct exports.
None of this would have been possible without CEDEPAS. They showed us how to improve our coffee quality, but also how to organize ourselves, and they gave us management training. We were also always allowed to use their office in Pichanaki for our meetings.
Sometimes CEDEPAS has also supported us with a grant for the purchase of drying racks or with food when we had hardly any income during the corona pandemic.
Many young people move from the countryside to the city because they think you can’t earn anything from farming. But that’s not true. If you organize yourself well and improve your quality, you can make a living in the countryside and feed a family.
I found a good source of income with coffee because I had new ideas and focused on specialty coffee, which earns you more money.
Recording: Hildegard Willer; Photos: Luisenrrique Becerra
Read more about the prospects of young farmers in central Peru and our partner organization CEDEPAS in the June magazine no. 2 2021 from terre des hommes schweiz here
More about the “café joven”, which comes to Switzerland directly from central Peru and is roasted and distributed in Basel here
