Casa de Paya
Aragua, Venezuela
A big coffee family
We’re proud to add ARAGUA to our panel of Venezuelan regions. Each lot available from this region in our offer is part of the “mother” project Casa de Paya. Casa Paya is a large Finca that is divided into several smaller Fincas: La Union – Leopoldo Yanes, San José – Evelin Escalona and La Palma, La Virgen and La Luisa from Ronald Pantin, Leopoldo’s cousin.
A new coffee management model
Each of these farms is managed by a person appointed by Leopoldo Yanez and Ronal Pantin. This management model is peculiar but pretty positive. To understand it, we need to go back a few years to when Casa Paya underwent a period of “invasion” (to use their words) of their land. Instead of trying to reclaim his land and chase off the people concerned, Léopoldo and his family decided to accommodate them and integrate them into his
“business model” by offering them the possibility of receiving a direct benefit from the sale of coffee in exchange for managing the coffee plots. This social context has been very positive for the community and could serve as a model for other coffee-growing areas.
Growing together
We were impressed by the project run by Léopoldo and his team, and decided to support it by joining forces with Casa Paya. We are currently supporting the project by training coffee growers in the various stages of coffee processing, while Richard Cabrera, our agricultural engineer, is working
on the agricultural side of the project, with soil analysis and organic fertilizers.
Coffee profile
OWNERS: Leopoldo Yanes, Evelin Escalona, Ronald Pantin
LOCATION: Turmero, Aragua – Venezuela
ALTITUDE: 1200 – 1700 meters
VARIETIES: Typica Criollo, Bourbon, Catuai, Caturra
HARVEST: Manual picking
HARVEST PERIOD: November – February
FERTILIZER: 100% organic (Worm Castings, Tricobiol, Nemabiol, Biomix)
