Our harvest has concluded at Hacienda La Minita and we are happy to have it behind us. 2020 was a difficult year. In addition to everything Covid-related we had to change and adapt to, we combated coffee leaf rust and Anthracnosis on the farm. Combined with the fact that 20/21 was already an “off-cycle” year, our yields at Minita were down by over 50%. We are likely completely sold out of La Minita Estate before even a single bag ships this year!
July, August and September were busy months with the building of new temporary housing units at Minita, designed with social distancing and improved hygiene in mind. We also carefully monitored the government’s restrictions on allowing international travelers as our coffee picking workforce at Minita relies on groups from both Nicaragua and Panama. The restrictions loosened enough for agricultural workers that we were able to secure the pickers we needed in time before the start of harvest.
Farm manager meeting at Minita Jan 2021
Transporting these groups of pickers from both Panama and Nicaragua brought challenges, and encouraging new safe behaviors was a big task. Expecting groups to stay in their “clusters,” semi-isolated in the housing units instead of mingling in Frailes and doing normal shopping and church-going was a big ask. We had several signs made, provided masks and required their use, and invested considerable time communicating the importance of following the new guidelines.
While there was great concern of putting our communities of Bustamante, Frailes, and the staff at the farm at risk by exposing them to people from outside communities, in the end things worked out. We dealt with only a handful of positive cases at our farms and mills, and the surrounding communities stayed mostly healthy; a large rural outbreak, which was our biggest fear, never came to pass.
Our staff and permanent field workers stayed safe and healthy through the season, and still practicing distancing, masking, and careful hygiene for the time being.
Quality check at Hacienda Rio Negro
Of course, 2021 marked the first time in over thirty years that we did not host any clients at La Minita. This is a bummer but understandably unavoidable. We hope things are back on track for visits in January 2022.
And even though our yield this year is low we still plan to offer a selection of microlots. We’re still working on final milling and processing and will announce what we have once things are finalized.