We were invited to Cauca, one of the Colombian leading departments in the production of high-quality coffees, by a young (only 22 years old) farmer and entrepreneur Alejandro Mosquera. 

 

Alejandro grew up on a coffee farm in the village of Cajibío and, unlike most of his peers, decided to stay in his native community and continue the family tradition of growing coffee. However, it was clear to him from an early age that he had to do it a little differently than his ancestors.

 

He graduated from an agricultural school, has completed several courses focusing on specialty coffee, and applies his theoretical knowledge not only on his parents’ farm but even organizes free courses for farmers from the surrounding area.

 

He focuses on growing specialty coffee, proper harvesting and he experiments with different types of coffee processing. In addition to this, he places great emphasis on ecology. For example, he has pushed for the creation of a filtration system for wastewater and the sowing of plants and trees that purify water after washing coffee cherries so that the contaminated water does not flow directly into nature.

 

Seeing that there are also people from the younger generation who want to continue working with coffee and at the same time don’t only think about themselves, who also care about the prosperity of other farmers in the area, was a very pleasant surprise, for which we must thank Alejandro. It is a pity that there are no more such young people.