Leonidas Asdruval Apolo

In the southern province of Loja, formed by 16 cantones, there is one in the south limiting with Peru called Puyango. The main economic activity of this canton is coffee and where Leonidas Asdruval has his farm Nueva Vida. He has been close to coffee all his life, as his father was a coffee farmer, and he remembers helping him since he was 12 years old. Leonidas recalls his father teaching him everything he knows about coffee with him practicing and applying this knowledge, when finally at 20 years old he started his own coffee production. Later on, in 2017 he had already heard about specialty coffee and how with a better quality he could get better prices. Leonidas attended several workshops and eventually started applying these learnings at his farm and looking out for quality. For example, at the begging he would pulp the coffee and ferment for 12 hours with some water and then dry. With the knowledge gained, he switched to doing an in-cherry fermentation of 40 hours in airtight tanks with escape gas valves. Afterwards pulping the cherries, washing them, and passing hem to the drying beds -a honey processes-, which has proven good results. Leonidas Asdruval works fully organic at his farm, as for him it is prohibited to use chemicals because it destroys the soil and microorganisms. He prepares his own fertilizers from fruits according to tutorials que has watched on social media, and he wants to seek workshops to learn more about preparing organic fertilizers.