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 and her son Javier, who lead the cultural practices at the farms. The family is deeply involved in the business plan for Nombre de Dios. And they are 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.

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.

Crop 2008-2009 was processed with clean water and sun dried at the “Beneficio Alotepeque”. An eco friendly mill that uses less water and is energy saving. 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. The family has also developed other projects to serve the local market with processed coffee.

Nombre de Dios has won CoE in 2004 (23rd), 2007 (5th) and 2008 (14th), making it an obvious high quality producing farm. Maria Elena and her family strongly believe that COE has allowed them and the country to regain origin recognition in the Coffee World Market. 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: 1,900 mm
Average Temperature: 22 ºC
Type of Soil: Clay loam
Annual Production: (60kg) 1,150 bags
Mill and company where lot was process: Beneficio Alotepeque
Other crops: Peaches, oranges, avocado, passion fruit, plantains, maize. Other land: Pine and Oak forest Fauna: Roadrunners, butterflies, rabbits, agouti, small mammals, deer, etc.

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