Marco Ricardo Morocho

Marco Ricardo Morocho lives with his wife Andrea Manoslavas, at their farm La Fortaleza, in the north of Ecuador, in Nanegal. The farm was inherited to him by his mother, who through hard work selling what she produced at the farm was able to provide for Marco Ricardo, hence the name La Fortaleza (The Fortress). The region where the farm is located, is surrounded by green and luscious mountains, with ample water sources. At 1,350 masl the farm has some great conditions to produce coffee of which Marco Ricardo has Bourbon Sidra, Bourbon and Typica Mejorada planted, with the first variety representing 50% of his trees. He also has for shade and consumption, crops such as avocado, plantain, mandarins, and oranges. The way he got involved was working in other coffee farms and learning about the crop, until finally a friend motivated him to have his own farm. Since then, 2015, has been working on his own coffee farm with the help of his wife Andrea. He has been working alongside the PECA technician of Caravela to improve his farm management and processing to be able to get better results year after year.

The processing of his coffee starts with a good picking of the ripe cherries which are then floated to take out the less dense cherries and any foreign material such as leaves or small branches. Subsequently, the cherries undergo an in-cherry fermentation in closed tanks for 24 hours and then pulped. Then, the coffee is fermented for a period of 13 hours, washed, and left to drain for 4 hours before being taken to the drying beds. In the drying beds, it takes from 7 to 15 days depending on the climatic conditions to reach the ideal humidity level.