Junior Vicente Chuquimarca

Junior Chuqimarca resides on his farm Jumbo, located in the mountainous region of the Calvas canton. The farm’s name is a tribute to his mother, Carmen Jumbo, who still lives on and assists him at the farm. From a young age, Junior witnessed how coffee provided for his parents, enabling them to support his education and build their home with the earnings. Through observing his parents’ dedication to coffee production, he gained knowledge about the crop. Inspired by their example, Junior decided to venture into specialty coffee production at the farm in 2016. It presented a significant opportunity to increase his income and support his family. In terms of farm management, Junior’s mother serves as the administrator, and he assists her. It is truly a family business, with involvement from his grandmother and uncle as well. They hire local workers for cherry picking while managing the pulping, fermentation, and drying processes themselves. In addition to coffee, the farm also cultivates shade trees and various other crops such as plantain, sugar cane, citrus, mango, blackberries, guava, and chirimoya. Junior takes great pride in his model of coffee production under shade and organic practices, demonstrating their commitment to environmental stewardship. He enjoys observing the diverse birdlife at the farm, a testament to their good environmental management. Junior’s current challenges revolve around establishing himself as one of the top producers of quality coffee in the region. To accomplish this, his current goals include achieving better quality, improving the wet mill, and implementing advanced technology for the pulper and fermentation tanks.

Regarding the coffee processing, Junior initiates the process by manually picking ripe cherries, which are then transported to the wet mill on the farm. At the mill, the cherries undergo flotation to separate any defective cherries that float and remove foreign materials like leaves or small branches. Subsequently, the cherries are pulped and floated again. Following this, the coffee is fermented in closed containers for a period of 48 hours without water. Once the fermentation is complete, the coffee is moved to the drying area, where it will take approximately 15 days to reach its ideal moisture level.