Ruber Muñoz Fernandez

On the outskirts of Pitalito, an important agricultural hub for the south of Huila, we meet Ruber Muñoz at his farm Buenavista. A place up in the hills with a view to the valley and other coffee fields, hence the name of the farm. As a little kid, he helped his parents at their farm with the coffee harvest and so started to learn about it. Later on, seeking new opportunities he decided to prove his luck by working in the city, but his roots were stronger, so he eventually went back to the farm to work with coffee. This happened around 22 years ago when his parents inherited him a part of the farm to start his own coffee production. Now a days, he lives alone but constantly has the help of neighbors and family with processing cherry picking and other aspects of the farm. Seven years ago, he decided to change to specialty coffee as he could have better earnings by seeking out quality. In this time, he has learned to value his coffee, differentiate varieties, learn about process and as such it has motivated him to keep improving his quality and be known for his coffee. At the farm he has a forest of which he feels proud of and the quality of the soil.

At this time, the biggest challenges he is facing is the unpaved road to get to his farm as it is far away and finding the necessary workers during harvest season for cherry picking. Currently, one of Ruber’s goals is to improve his drying station and working on some renovations to his house. As parting message wants to let you know “Keep buying my coffee so that I can continue harvesting and working in high quality and productive coffee, which has provided me an economic well-being