Jesuit priests introduced coffee to Guatemala in 1773 and today the country produces some of the finest coffee in the world.
Huehuetenango, at the foot of the Cuchumatanes, one of the highest non-volcanic mountain ranges in Central America, is one of the best regions in Guatemala for coffee production. In Huehuetenango, currents of hot air sweeping up from the isthmus of Tehuatepec cross paths with cool air descending from the Cuchumatanes Mountains, and this unusual climactic situation allows the cultivation of coffee, unique for the quality of its beans, flavor and aroma, at altitudes up to 1,900 meters. Huehuetenango is in the northwest of Guatemala, on the border with Mexico.
It is primarily a mountainous region, with altitudes ranging from 850 to 3,700 meters, though the region has an extraordinary variety of ecosystems (from subtropical forest to pine thickets).
The indigenous population, the majority of the local inhabitants, descends from various Maya tribes, including the Mam, the Akatecas, the Chuj, the Q'anjobal, and the Jacaltecas, each of which has a distinct language and culture. Their historic isolation from the Guatemalan population and the recent crisis in international coffee prices have made the indigenous inhabitants of Huehuetenango among the poorest in Central America. The recent collapse in coffee prices has thus caused a similar collapse in the local economy.
The only means of escaping this vicious circle is through diversification: developing high-end niche-market coffees and introducing other products (hot peppers, anise, vegetables) in areas that are not well adapted to coffee.
The Presidium coffee is made from plants of Coffea arabica (of the Typica, Bourbon and Caturra varieties) cultivated in the shade of the forest. The coffee berries are hand-harvested, picked one by one and placed in a wicker basket tied round the harvesters waist with a vine cord. The beans are extracted from the berries with a gentle fermentation that begins no more than four hours after harvest and lasts 24 to 36 hours. After removal of the coffee berry's flesh, the beans are dried for at least three hours, during which time they are constantly turned manually with a wooden rake.

The Presidium
The Presidium, started in 2002, drew up a production protocol outlining coffee production at above 1,500 meters and 150 producers have been involved so far. A mapping of the production area has shown that there are five zones particularly suited for coffee production, where some cru have been identified.
The production protocol guarantees taste, environmental and social quality of the final product, whereas each community is equipped with tasting workshops to allow the producers themselves to evaluate the flavors of their coffee and to take initiative in improving it.
Since the beginning, one of the Presidium’s objectives was to find direct market outlets for Huehuetenango Coffee, to ensure fair revenues for the coffee producers involved in the project. The annual coffee production by the Presidia growers has risen from 28 to 170 tons in the period between 2004 and today. In these five years, the price of green coffee beans paid to the producers has increased from 2.9 to 4.2 dollars (US) per kilogram.

Prisoners roast Huehuetenango coffee
Next, a more ambitious idea took hold: the installation of a coffee roasting facility in Vallette, a prison in Turin. The idea came about in the summer of 2004 and progressed through the efforts of Pietro Buffa, the prison director. It was a very unusal business dealing, not only in terms of the context, but because it directly involved 150 Guatemalan producers from the presidium.
The social cooperative Pausa Café manages the project and, for more than one year, a group of inmates have worked daily in learning the art of the traditional wood roasting thanks to assistance from coffee roaster Andrea Trinci. The Guatemalan producers sell their coffee directly to the roaster at a fair price and receive 50% of the profits at the end of each year.
The TransFair mark guarantees that this coffee has been processed without exploiting producers or exacerbating poverty in developing nations and is purchased according to fair trade standards.

Production area

Western altipiano of Huehuetenango, Municipalities of San Pedro Necta, La Libertad, Cuilco, La Democracia and Todos Santos Cuchumatanes

With the collaboration and support of
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Italian Cooperation

Project Partner
IAO - Overseas Agricultural Institute

Technical Partners
Andrea Trinci, Rancilio coffee equipment