Last week, when I was in Boquete for a few days I met with our Operations team and visited some of ICFC’s farms with Andres Lopez, our General Manager.
In-between harvest seasons is when we get our construction projects, building renovations and other expansion work done. Once harvest season hits it´s all hands to the pump with coffee!
So, this is a busy and important time in the development of not just the coffee farms, but the infrastructure that is needed to ensure International Coffee Farms (ICFC) is fully equipped to handle the maximum volume of coffee when we reach full production in our current 10 farms.
Which will be in the 2019/20 harvest cycle.
Usually our newsletter updates are all about coffee, coffee farms, group tours, the coffee processing mill and our socially and environmentally sustainable programs. And rightly so, as this is what our parcel Owners want to hear about.
It struck me though while ankle deep in mud on the side of the mountain, that we don’t share enough about what really goes on behind the scenes to build ICFC into an international coffee company, all the while telling the story of how truly passive this opportunity is for our clients.
Our first stop was finca Horqueta 1. Right now, the team is in the process of turning the worker’s (and their families) living accommodations around from tin roofs and packed mud floors, into modern day housing with full living, sleeping, laundry, cooking, shower and toilet facilities.
As you can see, the old inherited accommodations have been removed and the foundations are being laid for their new homes.
The new building won’t be the Ritz, but it will provide our workers with a clean and modern place that they can proudly call home. With running water, flush toilets with a septic system, gas stoves and real beds with 5-inch mattresses.
Night and day from what workers on most coffee farms live in.
Horqueta 1 is located just off a paved road, which was appealing when we acquired it. As we searched for higher altitude farms with untouched, virgin soil, we started to look further afield. To the Jaramillo Region.
So far, we have acquired 4 farms totalling 50 hectares (125 acres) in this region. These farms have already been fully planted with around 150,000 saplings. It was tough work as the access was more akin to a donkey trail! But our team got it done with minimum fuss and lots of sweat.
Now it´s time to build real roads to replace the dirt trails. To make life easier now for transporting workers, material and even tour attendees. And for the long term when we are transporting hundreds of thousands of pounds of coffee from these farms, annually.
The land is steep and off the beaten path, so road work is slow and expensive, but necessary.
Proper drainage was also installed beneath the roads to decrease the effects of erosion during rainy season and to reduce any risk of flooding.
This is the boring, dirty work that goes on behind the scenes to ensure that we have the infrastructure in place to not just design and create the perfect Specialty Coffee farms, but to establish ICFC as a long term, successful and profitable company.
International Coffee Farms (ICFC) will be around for a long time to provide amazing specialty coffee and steady, passive cash flow for our parcel Owners and their heirs.