Overview

Nombre de Dios farm is located at the highlands of Alotepec-Metapán Mountain Range at some 1,500 meters above sea level, between the towns of Metapán, Santa Ana and Citalá, Chalatenango. The history of this farm goes back to the early twentieth century, when Samuel Luna had a vision for progress and development for the Metapán area. Nombre de Dios San Juan, a fraction of the original “Hacienda San Miguel Ingenio y El Pinar”, is a legacy planted by grandfather, Juan Ramón Calderón in the 60’s. Since 2002, Nombre de Dios is run by María Elena and her two sisters, fourth generation coffee growers; who foresaw an opportunity for the coffee industry despite the world coffee price crisis.

All three sisters’ families work as a team. Maria Elena’s administrative work is supported by her husband Salvador, who leads the cultural practices at the farms. She also relies on her two sons that love and believe in agriculture as the key to the future of the world. Javier, her older soon is deeply involved in the business plan for Nombre de Dios and as graduate from Zamorano Agricultural University he has been working in diversification and coffee quality improvement.

Cultural practices such as pruning, weed control and fertilization after soil analysis results are carefully carried out on this shaded coffee farm. Broca (Coffee Berry Borer) is controlled with traps. Taking care of a coffee nursery is one permanent activity. Nowadays, they have begun to test organic fertilizers based on mill by-products and sea weeds. New nurseries are also part of their activities; some 30,000 new trees have been planted on 8 hectares over a 2 year period.

These activities employ 10 workers from March through September. At harvest, December to February the number of workers increases to 90. The growth and development of the community is a priority for the family; they donated land where a school, a clinic, a foot-ball field and a church were built. Since the year 2000 electricity is also available for the community. They also took some steps to get computers for the school though a program from USAID, CARE and the Agriculture Ministry. Special emphasis is also placed to keep the environment and so they recently donated trees to reforest the school surroundings.

Coffee is washed with clean water, sun dried at the “Beneficio San Miguel Ingenio” rebuilt in 1932 by his grandfather after the flood of San Miguel River that devastated the old mill. At this mill only coffee from the Luna family descendants is processed and to guarantee its origin, the harvest from each individual farm is milled and stored separately.

Cup of Excellence® motivated employees at the mill to have better controls of the wet process and coffee pickers are enthusiastic to know that their additional effort is also rewarded by better wages. For them, COE left a tremendous learning experience in correct processing which they have been improving by setting more control points throughout the wet and dry milling.

Nombre de Dios won COE in 2005 and 2007, and this allowed them to attract interest from buyers, and also develop other projects to serve the local market with processed coffee. Maria Elena and her family strongly believe that COE has allowed them and the country to regain origin recognition at the marketplace. They are fully motivated to continue improving quality and productivity, and specialize in top quality coffee production.

Additional information:
Location: Cantón Montenegro, Metapán
Coffee varieties: 95% Bourbón, 5% Pacas
Type of Shade: Pepeto, guachipilin, pink apple, mango, encino, maquilishuat, gravileo, cypress, liquidambar, walnut, laurel.
Average Annual Rainfall: 2,000 mm
Average Temperature: 18 ºC
Type of Soil: Clay loam
Annual Production: (60kg) 400 bags
Mill and company where lot was process: San Miguel Ingenio mill
Other crops: Peaches, oranges, avocado, passion fruit, plantains, maize.
Other land: Pine and Oak forest
Fauna: Torogoz, Roadrunners, butterflies, rabbits, agouti, small mammals, deer, etc.

GPS Coordinates:
Latitude: 14º 19’ 29.0’’ N
Longitude: 89º 19’ 22.1’’ W