Organic Coffee & Direct Trade, Ethical and Fair Trade.

Organic and Sustainable Processes

All of our coffee varieties are organic, this means that no synthetic fertilizers or pesticides are used in the micro-lots where the coffee is grown.

Our coffee beans are grown in shade-grown forests that stabilize ecosystems. They do this by “storing water, circulating soil nutrients, reducing temperature, balancing microclimates, purifying the air, and harboring countless plant and animal species, thus enriching biodiversity and reducing the deforestation caused by the large plantations of the commercial coffee industry.

The farms are not large monoculture coffee plantations, they also grow fruit trees, aromatic herbs, vegetables, sugar cane and legumes that provide the land with a variety of nutrients.

The coffee plantations use environmentally sustainable processes such as the treatment of residual water from coffee fermentation, which is purified in small treatment plants and then reused in other tasks on the farm.

The fertilizers are 100% organic; we use chicken excrement, coffee husks, waste from other processes, and compost.

All of our varieties are high altitude or high mountain coffee, which means that they grow in the mountain ranges of Colombia at altitudes between 1,550 and 1,850 A.M.S.L. As they grow under the shade of the trees and within the mist of the mountain, their beans take longer to mature and consequently their fruits obtain the greater natural sweetness of the coffee tree.

Direct, Ethical and fair Trade

Our coffee varieties are purchased directly from the coffee growers in the different regions of Colombia, where specialty coffee is grown and processed. They are not our suppliers, they are the most important partners of our business, without them EL AMIGO COFFEE would not exist.

We know the hard, dedicated and highly technical work that is required by the coffee grower to produce specialty coffee and for this reason their prices are higher than the commercial coffee, their prices are not negotiable and our agreements are paid before they send us the coffee, all of this is part of the ethics and commercial justice for the coffee growing community in the growing regions.

Ethical and Fair Trade protects coffee growers from the risks of commercial exploitation, and guarantees the production of high quality coffee, establishing safer working conditions for coffee growers and their employees.

Among the benefits of our fair trade negotiations is the improvement in the level of contracting of coffee harvesting personnel, which has helped coffee growers to hire associations of peasant women, indigenous women and ex-combatants of the internal conflict in Colombia, with direct contracting and with dignified salaries.

Just as on our side there are duties of direct, ethical and fair trade on the side of the coffee grower as well, these are some of them:

– Encourage community development (direct investment to communities promoting education in the next generations, ensuring the progress of the region)

– Abolish peasant child labor.

– Respect for the environment and integration of sustainable processes throughout the coffee process.

– Respect for the rights of its workers (decent wages, gender equity, non-discrimination, ensuring their working conditions and integral health).