Feature Espresso : Leoncio Maceto | Colombia

More about Leoncio and his coffee:

Leoncio is a coffee grower from Ortega municipality in Tolima, Colombia.

Cultivating coffee at his farm Las Brisas located in the Alto Guyabos areas. The farm spreads over 6 hectares of which 3.6 are dedicated to coffee production. Leoncio is a leading member of Cafe Agrario association, working to improve lives of their members through quality coffee production.

Working closely with Siruma, our export partners, the group has made huge progress over the last few years both in raising their coffee quality as well as improving their organisation skill and inclusion.

This lot from Leocio is processed using the traditional washed method with utmost precision resulting in an especially sweet and vibrant cup!

The story of Cafe Agrario Association:

Leoncio is one of the leading members of Cafe Agrario association who work closely with our export partner Siruma.

As Siruma explain, the association was initially set up with a political purpose by a leader with roots in the guerrilla warfare/conflict that Tolima was known for in previous years. As such, the association didn’t have any intentions to look for commercial activities or seek help from the government or other entities that work to help growers improve coffee yields and/or quality. Initially this did not pose any problems for its members, but as time passed by and more associations started to form in the region, Cafe Agrario’s members understood such associations were built to benefit their members by assessing these kinds of help.

After 6 years Cafe Agrario changed its leader and its course and started to receive help from entities from NGOs. The progress of the association and the coffee growers regarding quality and quantity was huge. As a consequence, the leader sought to increase sales exponentially and started to sell the members’ coffee on credit. Unfortunately, sales were made to companies that were were insolvent and couldn’t make their payments which resulted in the coffee growers’ not receiving their payments for coffee they had delivered.

Even though all the 35 families that are part of this association suffered hardship as a consequences of these failed sales, the growers continue to produce coffee - striving to find new ways to add value to their product. They have pivoted to specialty coffee, looking to increase their income by producing better quality coffee. And though there is certainly potential for high quality production, there is need to improve knowledge and knowhow of the processes needed to produce coffee exportable within the speciality market. And this is where Siruma can help. Not only by providing support through their sustainability and agronomy team but also by purchasing their coffee and being their direct link to the said quality focused market.

The association has now been working with Siruma for nearly five years and their progress has been significant, where both the coffee quality and the logistical and organisational skills of the group have seen incredible development. Initially, the association’s insufficient infrastructure and knowledge on quality analysis of their coffees meant that they weren’t fully aware of the value of their product and accepted base prices from their buyers even though when appropriately assessed their coffee had the potential to benefit from a much higher price within the global marketplace. With Siruma's help they have developed the capacity to do appropriate physical analysis of their coffee and now know the different varieties their farms have in order to process separately and sell sought after single variety lots.

Furthermore, through Siruma’s connections, the association has participated in various social equity workshops led by the non-profit Bean Voyage and several of its members had the opportunity to attend (with expenses covered) the Women Powered Coffee Summit held in Mexico. As many of their members shared during our visit and meeting with the association in November 2024, both these experiences have had a transformative impact on their confidence and the role of women in general in the association and coffee production.