Current Peru inventory and backstory

Peru occupies a unique place in world history and its cultural treasures are known by many

who visit. Agricultural practices have for millenia informed the development of food sourcing which powers our world today, and the coffee sector is no exception, if I may narrow the focus here in an Incan minute. Healthy organic or de facto organic practices, high mountains,

fertile microclimates and dedicated growers have made Peru into a powerhouse of Arabica production. Here we will spotlight the Vivanco family, whose coffees we love and whose growth from a nearly anonymous commercial grower of specialty coffee to a robust, world-beating enterprise has gotten our attention in a big way. I will shamelessly offer the text from our treasured import partners San Cristobal Coffee for a concise intro, as they have partnered with the Familia Vivanco in a fantastic way. You will find three of their coffees in the product menu: Satipo Washed Reserva (which replaces the Highland Select Reserva washed offering which we ran for months) and two barn burners, Red Caturra Anaerobic Washed and Anaerobic natural process.

"COOPAGRY was born from the vision of the Vivanco family, who are third-generation coffee farmers. Despite El Valle Palomar’s reputation for producing lots of coffee, small producers have long struggled with economic inequality. Middlemen dominate the market, purchasing coffee cherries or parchment at low prices and selling them to large cooperatives or exporters who export the coffee at significant profits. For small farmers, these export-driven profits are essentially out of reach.

For the Vivanco family, this imbalance was especially evident when an investor established a large 70-hectare, full sun, coffee farm and set-up a sophisticated wet mill just down the road from their home in Yapaz Bajo. While the investor’s company employed locals, including members of the Vivanco family, to manage operations and perform quality control, the family realized they had no direct market access for their own coffee and the organization's profits we not being passed down to them.

In 2021, three young members of the Vivanco family—Alex, Flor, and Jean Pierre—along with their uncle David, met up at a café in the nearby city of Villa Rica. Over the course of their conversation that day, they sketched out a long-term vision: establish their own family exporting organization. They called it COOPAGRY (Cooperativa Agraria Group Think Yapaz). Two years later, on April 15th 2023, their cooperative was officially established.

COOPAGRY Trained In Mexico

In early 2024, Alex and Flor (brother and sister) traveled to Mexico to intern with CSM (www.cafesumex.com) in Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico. It was an eye opening and transformative experience for them both. During their four-month internship, they studied coffee quality management, the formal evaluation of daily lots, producing organization management, international trade, and economies of scale. They also collaborated with CSM’s engineers to adapt our FincaLab® software for quality management in Peru. This internship, sponsored by San Cristobal Coffee Importers, equipped Alex and Flor with the skills and tools necessary to bring their vision for COOPAGRY to life.