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The History of Coffee in El Salvador

The History of Coffee in El Salvador

History of coffee in El Salvador

We are incredibly lucky to work so closely with Origin, who have forged countless direct-trade relationships across the world. In this issue, we are going to be diving a little deeper into the country of El Salvador, taking a look at its coffee history, harvesting and common processing techniques.

It might be the smallest country in Central America, but Salvadorans have lent a big hand in shaping the future of speciality coffee across the world and it has become renowned for high quality varietals, fertile soils, and an innovative spirit across its many coffee-producing regions.

Arriving in the 1880s, coffee quickly became the country’s main export and the economic gain from coffee production forced the building of infrastructure to support it with the development of roads, railways and ports.

By the 1920s, coffee production accounted for around 90 percent of all exports in El Salvador and by the 1970s it held the position of being the 4th largest producer in the world. Today, however, El Salvador stands as the 11th largest producer out of 55 coffee producing nations, and coffee accounts for under two percent of their export trade. After such rapid growth, El Salvador fell just as quickly into trouble, with challenges threatening to topple their position from the world stage.

While the country produced a large quantity of coffee, its production - and money - was held in the hands of a small elite group, most of whom were politically connected and personal and political gain ruled decision making. A long period of civil war (1979-1992) saw a huge decline in production and demand; after such a long period of unrest, producers found it hard to break into the international market amid competition from other countries.

Yet Salvadorans weren’t ready to give up. After the war, land reformation and redistribution broke up many of the large and traditional estates. This opened up the opportunity for more small-scale farmers, allowing them to grow on pieces of affordable land. The landscape of coffee production in the country finally began to shift again - to the skilled, ambitious, and resilient one we know and admire today.

Growing and Harvesting

Coffee is grown over seven of the fourteen provinces in El Salvador, with 165,000 hectares - almost 12 percent of the country’s arable land - dedicated to growing the crop by approximately 20,000 producers.

Around 95 percent of these producers grow coffee on less than 20 hectares of land, with no single person permitted to own over 245 hectares, thanks to the rules that followed the redistribution of land after the civil war.

Almost all coffee produced is shade grown, maintaining the biodiversity of the country.

Bourbon, Pacas, and Pacamara are three of the most common varietals grown in El Salvador (Bourbon accounts for over half of all the crops grown), grown at a broad range of altitudes, benefitting from rich, volcanic soil, and high rainfall between May and October. The harvest season typically runs from December to March, peaking in January.

Carlos Pola

At Society, we have a long-standing relationship with a Salvadoran farmer named Carlos Pola. Carlos is a true pioneer in the global speciality coffee industry and his dedication has paved the way for others.

Carlos’s innovation saw Dan Fellows take the World Barista Championship title. Picking only the ripest Pacamara cherries from their San Antionio farm, his team froze them immediately for 24 hours, before leaving them to dry naturally for 17 days. This process resulted in bold sweetness and clarity with grapefruit and raspberry flavours – a winning combination for his frozen natural experiment coffee cocktail.

We have recently been lucky enough to welcome Carlos to our Baldwin St Society to present a talk on his farm, his projects and path to sustainability – and we also used one of his incredible coffees, El Guineyal (dehydrated honey) on our stand at London Coffee Festival.

A huge thank you to Carlos Pola for the fantastic coffee, and a toast to our growing relationship.

 

 

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