Camila Topke is a fourth-generation Guatemalan coffee producer and an InterAmerican coffee trader. We can’t think of a better host for a visit to coffee farms, a Producer & Roaster Forum and her hometown.
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Guatemala’s coffee farms are where Camila Topke feels right at home. And May 19–25, she’ll be sharing her hometown with a group of roasters and green buyers.
“I’m very excited to visit the farms, to explain the processes to our customers, to show them all around. And even on the drive, to tell them about all the little surrounding towns and about Guatemala's history,” she says.
As a junior coffee trader on our Houston team, Camila will be leading a trip that includes a visit to El Tempixque—the farm of the Falla Castillos, one of the oldest farming families in Antigua—and to San José Poaquil in Chimaltenango, where the non-profit coffee foundation Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung (HRNS) has a project in place to improve the living conditions of 1,000 smallholder families. (Currently, 1,031 families are involved.)
The trip will also include two days at the Producer & Roaster Forum 2019, an event created by Anacafé, the national association that represents Guatemala’s coffee producers, which is expected to focus heavily on conversation about quality and direct-trade impact (the agenda will be released soon). Attendees will also be able to participate in a pre-cupping auction for the world’s first blockchain coffee auction.
And finally, the group will also spend a day with Unitrade, a nonprofit that fosters social awareness projects—focused on education, nutrition and medical care—in coffee-growing regions.
Meet Camila Topke
“This is so much fun for me because I know the people behind the scenes, and I know people at Anacafé. It’s very easy for me to relate to Guatemalan producers,” says Camila, who before joining InterAmerican was a fourth-generation coffee farmer in Santa Rosa.
“I grew up in Guatemala City, but we went pretty often to the farm, especially during harvest,” she explains.
While her father wanted Camila and her younger sister to take over the farm, Camila was initially unsure.
A nursery on Finca Arbelia, Camilas family farm in Santa Rosa.
“When I was younger, I liked the farm, but I didn’t love it. When I went to college, my dad wanted me to study agribusiness, like he had, but I studied marketing instead. After I graduated, I went back to Guatemala and was going to the farm a lot, and that’s when I started to really love the farm and the coffee industry. I started to meet roasters, importers, exporters; I got involved in Women in Coffee. Experiencing more of the supply chain and focusing more on production is what made me fall in love with coffee.”
Once her heart was in it, Camila started making change—based on knowledge from her father, what she was reading, and what she was learning from members of the local chapter of the International Woman’s Coffee Alliance.
“I tried to make everything sustainable. So, things like having Pelibueys, the little goats. We have like 300 of them now. And they’re very helpful because they eat all the bad plants, the weeds. Also, we did an experiment with worms. Our fertilizer comes from compost. We feed the worms coffee pulp, and whatever they expel becomes fertilizer.”
Chimaltenango and Antigua
While InterAmerican has sold coffee from Camila’s family farm, Finca Arbelia, she chose two other farms for the visit.
“Finca El Tempixque (tem-PEACE-kay) in Antigua, I think will be a really good experience for them because a lot of the coffee farms in Antigua don’t have shade, and if they do have shade it’s one type of tree. So. it’s very unique,” she explains. “Then afterward, we'll spend the night in Antigua, which I think our customers will really appreciate. It’s such a special place.”
The following day the group will head to San José Poaquil.
“It’s where we have a project with HRNS, so we’ll be able meet some of those producers, and some of the young people in the Coffee Kids program, which all about opening doors for the next generation of producers.”
How to Participate
First, contact Camila! She’d love to hear from you and field questions: camila.topke@nkg.coffee.
Participants will pay for their flights, as well as a flat fee for a package InterAmerican will share soon that includes accommodations, meals, ground transportation and a two-day pass to the Forum.
It’s an incredible opportunity to learn more about export and production processes in Guatemala, to engage with producers and experience their farms, to have in-depth conversations with industry professionals, and to cup high-quality auction microlots. We hope you’ll get in touch and join us! •
