La Prosperidad - Chirinos Esencia - Community Lot

Who are La Prosperidad?

They are a cooperative that is composed of 817 coffee producers with more than 54 years of experience, focused on environmental care and building relationships based on trust and respect. They have a long history of being coffee producers and are passionate about coffee. They collect and market coffee, generating a lot of value for their members. They are based in Chirinos, a small town in the province of San Ignacio, Cajamarca.

About Chirinos Esencia

We have more than 150 producers who produce "Chirinos Essence" coffee, and the history of producing high-quality coffee dates back to 1968. The coffee is produced at an altitude of over 1700m and includes varieties such as Caturra, Paches, Typica, Mundonovo, and Bourbon.

The story of "Chirinos Essence" began in 2014 when they implemented their first centers of excellence for their coffee production. Through the support of their leaders and post-harvest infrastructure, they were able to obtain specialty coffees that reflect our essence of work, dedication, and passion for coffee growing. The cooperative work of over 54 years is reflected in the quality of our coffee, which has achieved SCA scores ranging from 85 and above.

How was the coffee processed?

They use a selective harvesting process that only collects mature red cherries. The same day of the harvest, the coffee is fermented for 24 hours, washed, and dried using polypropylene blankets in solar dryers for 15 days to ensure optimal humidity levels. The coffee is fertilised with their own organic fertiliser called "Pachakushi: a term Quechua which means "happy land" and is made mainly from coffee pulp.

The "Chirinos essence" coffee is produced on collectively 200 hectares of land. They currently produce 1700 exportable 69kg bags of this coffee. They employs field extensionists who provide technical assistance for fertilisation issues, plot support, pest and disease prevention, harvest, and post-harvest.

The role of La Prosperidad for this coffee

Once the coffee is delivered by their collection partners, they evaluate it physically and sensorily and then group the lots according to the level of certification and quality. The parchment coffee is processed in the northern forest and border coffee plants of San Ignacio and embarks through the port of Paita and Callao. The sorting and processing take place in Café Selva Norte, and the size of the grain is 0.5 centimeters.

What La Prosperidad want you to know

Buying their coffee not only means supporting the producing families to improve their quality of life, but it also contributes to the sustainable development of their cooperative and the promotion of sustainable organic agriculture. They are producers of coffee who work for the well-being of our partners, collaborators, the community, and our clients. They offer quality organic coffee, taking advantage of the special natural conditions of our area and our cooperative history.

What La Prosperidad want to achieve with their coffee sales

In addition to their coffee production, they work on social projects such as the development of the Inspire Educational Program and an agreement with the National University of Jaén. They also support the higher education of their partners' children and carry out the first environmental fingerprint study of organic coffee to measure and analyse the environmental impact generated throughout the coffee life cycle. Their ultimate goal is to implement a carbon credits project.

How does Khipu know La Prosperdad?

We met with La Prosperidad in November 2022 at their office in Chirinos, Cajamarca. We did cuppings of all their main coffees which we now offer and visited one of their employees/cooperative members farms.

We had a tour of their farm to see how the harvest was getting on and an introduction to the post harvest processing and cooperative benefits such as compost and cultivation of new coffee varieties.