Pluma Hidalgo – Washed Arabica – Oaxaca – Mexico

Roast degree: Medium

Recommended for: Espresso and Filter

• Producer: Eloxochitlán
• Location: Sierra Mazateca, Oaxaca.
• Altitude: 1500-1650 masl.
• Process: Washed Arabica.
• Varieties: Typica, Mundo Novo, Bourbon.
• Origins: Mexico.
• Ingridienser: Ristede kaffebønner

The Context

In Mexico, our work is based in Oaxaca and Chiapas. From afar, Mexico is a growing economic force, ranked 64th globally in GDP per capita. However, the coffee-producing states in southern Mexico face a very different economic reality. Oaxaca and Chiapas are the two poorest states in Mexico with poverty rates of 60-80% and extreme poverty rates of 20-40%

Production yields have become dangerously low in these regions. Over the last ten years coffee leaf rust disease and the lack of financial or agricultural means to tackle it has reduced production by up to 90% in some regions. The average yield in Oaxaca is now just 100kg of parchment per hectare. For context, in Colombia, the average yield is 2,400kg per hectare. 

The vast majority of Mexico’s 500,000 coffee producers are smallholder farmers and have one hectare or less of land under coffee. This makes the average annual production for many producers just 100kg, making coffee farming more and more unsustainable. This is fuelling widespread migration to urban centres in Mexico and the United States. In short, coffee production is disappearing.

We work with several producer groups in Oaxaca

These partnerships help improve the overall profitability and viability of coffee production for producers in Oaxaca. Our long term focus is on improving yields and building stable demand at a stable price by connecting roasters with producers. We aim to achieve this in ways that are low-cost, easily replicated, and that ensure the first-order upsides are captured directly by those most marginalised.

To achieve these goals we've focused first on building trust and setting a baseline for coffee pricing and pre-financing. Currently, the most common outlet for producers in Oaxaca is to sell their parchment to local intermediaries at a market-set price. 

We aim to consistently pay upwards of this standard market price as a first payment.

Following this is a second, quality-based price that increases total profit earned per kg by between 7 and 10 times. This has been self-identified as the most impactful role we can play in the short term. Paying in this way provides rapid, predictable returns on investment made by producers and can increase household income from coffee by up to 10 x the average income derived from selling at the local market price. La Mazateca is the most isolated and least coordinated region we work in.  We are working with Felipe Palacios, a retired teacher, to coordinate producers and buying around the town of Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón. This is a challenge in a remote region where many producers speak only the local Mazateco language, but the coffees from the Mazateca are among the most complex and interesting in Mexico.

Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón 

Is the name of the town and its producer association. Located in the remote Sierra Mazateca region of Oaxaca, Elox as it is known by the locals is the base of Raw Material’s operations in the region.

The Sierra Mazateca mountain range is located to the north of Oaxaca city and forms much of the state’s border with Veracruz. The region is very remote, hard to access and marked by its steep and dramatic topography. The Mazateca is also known for its more mystic elements with a strong culture of shamanism and psychoactive mushroom use that saw it become an unlikely centre for alternative tourism in the 1960’s and 70’s.

Today the region is rarely visited, and even in the coffee world it is often neglected due to the challenging conditions, remote locations and small production.  Even by Oaxaca’s low standards production yields are tiny here in part due to the cool temperatures.  Coffee is generally grown at 1500 metres and above in the Mazateca and at this latitude, these altitudes experience very low temperatures making frost damage a real issue for producers.

This climate and these altitudes also contribute positively to the cup profile and in general, coffees from the Mazateca are among the most complex and highest quality in all of Mexico. Most producers in the region will harvest less than one bag of coffee per year.

Many producers here do not speak Spanish and Mazateco is the first language for the vast majority of people in the region. This can make organisation and coordination a little tougher but the quality and potential make the Mazateca one of the main focuses of our work in Mexico.

The Eloxochitlán group is a loosely structured collection of producers from across the region. The group is managed by a local representative, who works with us to coordinate coffee producers in the region, specifically around the towns of Peña Colorada, Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón, and Agua Iglesia.

 Working closely with them, we seek to open up access to the specialty market for producers in the Mazateca, and to provide a sustainable and profitable supply chain for their coffees. Doing this will provide a long term, stable, and profitable alternative to simply selling to local intermediaries at a market-based price- currently the only option for many producers. In time this supply chain can help to generate capital and investment to help improve yields, production volumes and quality in the Mazateca.

 All the coffee is pulped, often with hand pulpers then fermented for around 48 hours, typically in wooden tanks before being dried on petates, traditional hand-woven mats.

Our packaging is made of 100% recyclable plastic.