Colombia | Fernando Paiva | Caturra Washed #8487

About Fernando Paiva

Fernando Paiva and his family have been working on Finca Pedregal for 27 years. The farm is located at 1,150 meters above sea level in Acevedo, Huila. Alongside Fernando, three permanent employees and 15 seasonal workers help ensure the production of top-quality lots. Fernando chose the Caturra variety for its exceptional quality, resulting in a sweet and aromatic coffee. 

Cuatro Vientos is a family-owned exporter based in Colombia. Founded in 2018 by Julian & Yonatan Gonzalez and based in Huila, the company is named after the Gonzalez’s first farmnwhere the brothers spent much of their childhood.  Yonatan and Julian learned much of what they know from their father, Armando Gonzalez who was a “pergaminero,” someone who bought and sold parchment coffee. Sucafina has worked with Cuatro Vientos since 2021. 

Through their partnership with Sucafina, Cuatro Vientos is able to more effectively reach new markets. This, in turn, means they can work with more farmers and develop better programs to support their farmers.

Cuatro Vientos has 3 purchasing points in Huila: Acevedo, Santa Maria and Algeciras. These points are more than just places where they buy coffee, though. They are service hubs where farmers can access services to maintain quality and reach new markets. For Cuatro Vientos, farmers are long term partners who are focused on quality.

With these three locations, Cuatro Vientos is able to source fresh coffee year-round. In their unique position across Huila, they can tap into two alternative harvest seasons within Huila. The northern Huila harvest occurs in the first half of the year and the southern Huilaharvest happens during the second half of the year, providing high-quality coffees year round.

They also own 2 warehouses that are strategically placed in Acevedo (in Southern Huila) and Campo Alegre (in Northern Huila). The warehouses provide an array of important services to farmers. Farmers can dry their coffee, store dried parchment in silos and learn to grade and evaluate coffees in the cupping labs. 

Cuatros Vientos adds value by offering logistics and milling support to the over 30 farms that they work with. These farmers are all specialty oriented and Cuatro Vientos’ focus on specialty processing helps farmers ensure that their coffees are handled properly.

One of Cuatro Vientos’ biggest impacts is their credit line offerings. Growers need financing at the beginning of the harvest and it is difficult for them to access financing through traditional banks due to a lack of financial documentation. By providing financing through their partner, Bancolombia, Cuatro Vientos is supporting long term farmer profitability. They also provide financial education workshops that increase farmers’ financial literacy and promotes overall success.  

They also provide marketing services for farmers, helping them manage samples and tell their stories. Importantly, they act as an integral part of a two-way conversation between producers and roasters about what they’re looking for, what they can do and how they can best achieve the results they’re looking for.

Cultivation

Located in Acevedo, on the southern side of Huila, Finca Pedregal benefits from its high altitude and exceptional microclimate, creating ideal conditions for cultivating specialty coffees. Huila’s coffee is celebrated for its bright acidity, complex flavors, and fruity notes, solidifying the region’s reputation as a leader in Colombia’s coffee industry. Fernando chose to cultivate the Caturra variety on Finca Pedregal for its outstanding quality and reliable production. In addition to coffee, the farm also grows bananas, yuca, oranges, and tangerines. 

During harvest, farmers selectively handpick cherry at peak ripeness. After intake, cherry is sorted to remove any underripe or defective fruit. The farm manager oversees the process to ensure it is done properly. Cherry is then fermented for 48 hours, pulped, and fermented for an additional 12 hours before being washed in clean water. The parchment is sun-dried for 10 to 15 days, depending on the weather. 

Coffee in Colombia

Colombia has been producing and exporting coffee renowned for their full body, bright acidity and rich aftertaste, since the early 19th century.

Colombia boasts a wide range of climates and geographic conditions that, in turn, produce their own unique flavors in coffee. This also means that harvest times can vary quite a bit. In fact, between all its different regions, Colombia produces fresh crop nearly all year round.

The increasing focus on the specialty industry is changing the way traders and farmers do business. It is becoming more common for farmers to isolate the highest quality beans in their lots to market separately. These higher-quality lots are often sold under specific brands or stories.

Besides its wide variety of cup profiles, Colombia has quickly expanded its certification options over the past 10 years. The most common certifications available are Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, UTZ and Organic.