Northern Peru

The Visit

The team visited six producer groups with coffee stretching from the south to north of Jaen / San Ignacio. As well
as to the east in the Amazonas.

Reasons for the Drop in Volume

When asked the reasons for the drop in production we were given a range of reasons that included:
a) Cherry borer (broca). We were told that damage from this insect was particularly bad in the lower altitude
plantations where the climate had been hot / dry and very conducive to the insect lifecycle.
b) Poor fruit set in the lower altitude areas due to lack of rains after early flowering, especially in the lower
altitude plantations.
c) A high incidence of the fungal disease “anthracnose”, especially in poorly managed plantations. This
fungal disease causes leaf drop prior to the harvest resulting in the cherry not maturing.
d) Lower yields than expected on renovated plantations from 2022 and 2023.

Pricing & Quality

Field prices have remained very high throughout the crop with a noticeable increase in the differential for
conventional qualities in the last month. As of last week, there was no difference in offers between conventional
and organic coffees. We are seeing a widening price gap between the qualities of 80 cup / 82 cup and 84 cup
which is now tracking 30 cts/lb from low to high.

Our principal focus in Peru were coffees in the 82+ cup to the 84+ cup categories. On the tables that we cupped,
qualities were all very clean / consistent and within target ranges. We did find some excellent coffees within the
84+ cup category. We noted from our Peruvian partners that they believe these qualities are running tight and that
availability will come to an end by September/October shipments.

The 2025/2026 Crop & the Future

The Cooperatives/Associations:

Two / three years ago many of the groups ran into financial difficulties as a result of a large number of contracts
with losses. This combined with poor governance resulted in a substantial restriction of liquidity from the banks
and financial institutions. The better organized entities have now overcome those issues, fulfilling contracts and
paying down debt. We noted several groups have reduced their volume of business and restructured the business
with more of an emphasis on the higher quality coffees where margins are better

Quality and price:

We found the groups that we met are all pushing to improve quality and focus on the higher value markets. That
push included extensive investments in; on farm wet milling and solar drying units as well as the planting of higher
quality varieties.

Future production:

We found producers continue to be very motivated with the next generation interested and returning to coffee
productions. Labor for harvesting is tight but we didn’t hear of folks emigrating out of the communities as we hear
from other coffee producing countries. We were also told that most producers expect the mid-term production to
increase as newly renovated plantations start to kick in with production next year.