Gaviña Initiates New Direct Impact® Program Benefiting Coffee Farmers in Guatemala

Guatemalan Vista

We are excited to announce our newest Origin Sustainability project in Casillas, a municipality of Santa Rosa, Guatemala…

Guatemalan Vista

We are excited to announce our newest Origin Sustainability project in Casillas, a municipality of Santa Rosa, Guatemala. This project is particularly exciting because it is a four year long partnership with Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung North America (HRNS) during which we hope to make a difference in Casillas from an Environmental, Operational, and Community standpoint.

In Casillas, most coffee farmers are still struggling to recover from the roya (Coffee Leaf Rust) crisis of 2013-2014 that severely impacted Guatemalan coffee production. While the overall Guatemalan coffee yield dropped an estimated 15-20% during the roya crisis, the small-scale farming community in Casillas faced a severe loss, with 50% of their crop destroyed.

As coffee farmers in Casillas recover from the roya crisis, there is an opportunity for them to improve the quality and yields of their coffee crop with improved farming methods. In order to make their farms stronger than ever, they need access to resources and financing that will allow them to overcome the roya crisis.

During the next four years, we will be providing technical and operations assistance to 100 coffee farmers and young people in Casillas to improve quality, crop yields, and sustainability practices in the region.

Casillas Farming Community

“Gaviña is committed to promoting a culture of sustainability. We are dedicated to empower smallholder coffee farmers allowing them to be more self-reliant, adapt to climate change, and preserve their land for future generations.”

Yu-Yue Yen, Sustainability Director

Our Direct Impact® project aims to train participants to employ sustainable farming methodologies while adopting best practices to generate better yields from their land resulting in higher income. The program will also provide financial resources so that farmers will have access to the capital they need to improve their farming.

Direct Impact® Gaviña Initiative

By the end of the project, our goal is that 60% of the participants will adopt sustainable agricultural practices, increase their coffee production yield by 20%, and 75% of the families will generate income above the poverty level.

Direct Impact® is a Gaviña Initiative to promote environmental and community sustainability practices in the growing, procurement, roasting, processing, packaging, and sale of coffee and coffee-related products and services.