Bolivia Sajama BULK (Coffee Cycle Roasting)

Sajama is a cooperative located in the La Paz department surrounding the town of the same name. Founded in 1990, it currently works with 42 contributing producers. Together these producers have 630 hectares of farmland and around 600,000 coffee trees. Their farms often also produce plantains and different citrus fruits.

The contributing farms are located in a mountainous region with rich biodiversity. Coffee is one of the main sources of income for families in this area and plays a fundamental role in their livelihood and well-being. The coop works to continuously improve quality to better the lives of its members.

Coffee is picked ripe by hand and washed with clean water. They work to maintain the waste water to care for the environment. Drying is completed on beds in the sun.

Sajama producers hope to expand their farms, grow different varieties, and care for the environment in order to improve quality each year and ensure the longevity of their work. The coop values the history and tradition its community has in coffee production. Its members' farms have been producing coffee for generations and they strive to keep those traditions and techniques that have been passed down alive while innovating and adapting to changes in the market and industry.

Bolivia

Exactly when and how coffee came to Bolivia is uncertain. Similar to many other areas of the Americas, coffee was likely brought by enslaved people from Africa. The first records of coffee in Bolivia come from the 18th century through estates in the Yungas region, grown and consumed by the landowners. Later plantations began in the Yungas, but it was never the main crop. Coca leaves grew very well in the region and, at the start of the 20th century, made up 95% of the agricultural market in Bolivia. This prompted a movement to diversify crops to avoid complete dependence on coca production. With a significant increase in global coffee consumption from around 1970, coffee production expanded more intensively in areas like Caranavi and La Asunta. In the 1980s, with the passage of Law 1008, which regulated coca and controlled substances and defined traditional and surplus coca cultivation areas, coffee was once again considered an economic alternative to replacing these crops. In the following years, several cooperatives and associations were created that would dominate a significant portion of coffee production compared to independent producers. During the 1990s, production levels peaked at around 156,400 60 kg sacks.

Since the record production in the 1990s, Bolivia’s exports have wavered. There was a steep decline to an average of 57,420 60 kg sacks of green coffee by 2016. Despite the lower volume, profits have not decreased terribly, thanks to the shift to primarily fair trade and organic markets. Today, Bolivian coffee production is likely on the rise again. Coffees from the country are in high demand in the specialty market, and local consumption is increasing. New cafes are opening exponentially in larger cities and towns. In recent years, young professionals with knowledge of the "third wave of coffee" have emerged, and more and more people are becoming interested in this topic daily. 12,000 families in the Caranavi depend on coffee as their primary source of income.

Coffee production is also being promoted as part of the National Strategy for Sustainable Integral Development. It is one of the prioritized sectors under the strategic guideline of fostering, promoting, and consolidating the production of competitive agro-industrial products with potential for national and international markets.

Bolivia is ready to enter this new phase, but it requires a comprehensive effort involving everyone from the producer to the barista in pursuit of the common good, which will turn Bolivia into a reference point in the specialty coffee world.