Nicaragua is the main country we at Kaffee-Peter get our green coffee from. The farmers collective COASSAN as well as the GEPA are our reliable and competent partners there. If you like to get more information please look here.
Coffee is the most important trading good of Nicaragua. It is mostly cultivated in the moister northern regions of the country. The mountains of the Jinotega and Nueva Segovia regions are home for coffee farms for several decades. This is due to the perfect environmental conditions one finds there. The tropical rainforests reach heights between 1200 to 1700 metres above sea-level and provide excellent growing conditions for the coffee plant.
The city of Jinotega serves as the place where coffee farmers sell their green coffee and buy new crops for the next season, if needed.
That is where COASSAN found itself some years ago. The collective serves as a legal entity which helps organize the buying and selling of the seasonal harvest of over 120 coffee farms and their owners. Since most of the farms are run by families, they won´t be able to realize the same prices for their products as if they would try to sell them on their own. Especially on an international level. But fair, sustainable prices are the basis for a long-lasting will to produce high-class green coffee. Realizing these is the job of the COASSAN and our other partner, the GEPA.
The GEPA was one of the first companies in Germany to start the Fairtrade idea. As such, the GEPA acquired lots of knowledge about the best practices in the business. If you like to get more information about the GEPA, please see the link below:
COASSAN has two simple, but important, criteria when they select new members. Every coffee farm must be implemented in the natural rainforest, Monocultures are forbidden. Additionally, the use of chemicals must be minimized or even excluded if the use of a natural resource guarantees the same outcome.
The quality of the green coffee does play an important role as well. The COASSAN does control the harvesting process and the processing of the coffee beans, to make sure that the pickers only pick ripe coffee beans and the important timeframes between picking and processing are met.
