Cubulco Tres Cruces SHB

The story behind Cubulco Tres Cruces SHB

Diego Ruiz and his brother Providencio have worked in coffee for many years. They began as pickers and moved throughout the different coffee regions in Guatemala. In 2018, Diego had the opportunity to buy land close to their home in Aldea Tres Cruces, Cubulco, and was amazed when he found coffee trees in it. Providencio was working as a community leader in their town, so he knew many other coffee producers from the area.

They picked the coffee from Diego’s farm and sold it to an intermediary. Everybody was doing this in their town and continued until last year when they realized the prices they were getting were meager compared to other producers processing their coffees.

They decided to try and build a small wet mill in their home, even though they had yet to gain experience. They started with a small mechanical pulper and pulped their coffee. Soon after, they contacted producers around their area and bought coffee cherries. They used plastic barrels as fermentation tanks. They knew that to keep their new operation, they needed to offer better cherry prices than the ones offered by the intermediaries, so they did. They started buying coffee from many local producers, sometimes even helping to get the cherries from the farms to bring them to their wet mills. Providencio says they both know how hard coffee picking can be and want to help their community in any way possible.

So far, they’ve worked with 30 producers, built a fermentation tank, and bought a new electric pulper, as their operation has been well received by their neighbors and producers in the area. They’ve recently bought a moisture meter to use in the patios, which currently are big nylon sheets spread over the land. Their next objective is to buy another pulper, as they are well known in the area, and they are sure they can get more of the fantastic coffee this subregion produces.