We’re kicking off Mexico season with Veracruz and Chiapas, where the harvest is going full-force. Our Mexico team has been hard at work since before harvest, traveling constantly from community to community and communicating with producers and trade partners, working quickly and decisively to ensure maximal stability and consistency during this volatile moment we face as an industry. We’re happy to say that we’re bringing in the same coffees from the same producers on the same timelines (rolling arrivals early May through July) as in years past. These are long, stable relationships that rely on mutual trust we have worked hard over years to build and are leaning into to support both ends of the supply chain.

Our work right now, as always, is in facilitating maximal stability and certainty throughout our entire supply chain. On the roaster side, we’re able to use our producer and trade relationships to give roasters the stability of reliable coffees at great value with predictable arrival timing and top quality, same as any other year. On the origin side, we’re able to help provide that same stability to the producers who have come to know and trust us to pay reliably great prices on time, exactly as promised. During the current moment of peak volatility, we’re working hard to provide that calm amid this storm. 

We have excellent community lots from both Veracruz and Chiapas ready to sample, commit to, and build into your menu plans. 

VERACRUZ

Veracruz’s Cherry Trade Model

Veracruz’s production model is somewhat unique in Latin America in that coffee is primarily sold and collected in cherry rather than parchment, and processed in centralized wet mills. Our core partners here have invested in building their washing station and dry mill into a top-tier community resource that offers ultra-consistent results. They are collecting quality cherry from more remote, higher-altitude communities in the sierra where Veracruz and Puebla meet and the surrounding areas outside of Coatepec. They’re also implementing controlled systems to optimize processing, including extended fermentation, to achieve consistently high-scoring community lots. Buying cherry provides a more stable pricing equation that quickly pays farmers cash, while adding an efficiency component that doesn’t necessarily move with the same extreme volatility we’ve been seeing in the past few months coupled to the C market.

Top-Tier Profiles from Familiar Faces

This year’s ripening patterns and harvest have been close to ideal, yielding quality as good as we’ve seen out of Veracruz. The main communities we work with here are Xico (red fruits, brown sugar, orange peel), Mafafas (berry, grape, amber honey), Cosautlan (dried fruits, raisin, cacao), Patlanalan (lime, peach, berry, sweet spice), Ohuapan (green apple, floral, grapefruit), and Coatepec (cherry, dark chocolate, almond), all of which had significantly larger harvests than last season. We’ve selected premium stocklots that are starting to mill and ship this month. 

We’re being extremely thoughtful and intentional with our purchasing this season, so quantities will be somewhat limited with great value and high quality that’s ideal for dual purpose as single origin and blends in particular. Target cup scores are 85/86+ with strict green prep and moisture standards. 

CHIAPAS

Chiapas has a more traditional parchment-collection model, with a strong history and presence of cooperatives. It’s also the home to most of the organic-certified coffee we purchase out of Mexico. Specifically, most of it comes from cooperatives made up of smallholders rather than estates. 

Certified-Organic Coffee & the Liquidity Crunch

Certified coffee is more scarce this year than in a typical year because of the liquidity crunch. Liquidity is low right now because lenders have to float so much money for purchasing currently available coffees that there’s less money available to lend out for future purchases. This goes double for certified coffee, which costs much more than uncertified coffee—meaning that cooperatives have less money to buy certified coffee and more coffee is being sold as conventional (even if it was grown within certification standards). Additionally, large actors have contracts they need to fill with certified coffee, so it goes fast. Labor shortage and cost issues have also been particularly sharp in Chiapas the past few seasons and that trend continues.  

Repeat Partners

Despite all of these very real, pressing challenges, we’ve committed to our main partner in Chiapas who have delivered some exceptional coffee the past few harvests. We’re stocking some really superb certified organic community lots from a single-farmer cooperative group that we’ve been working diligently with the past few years to improve systems and promote quality among their nearly 200 farmer members, around the La Concordia region bordering the El Triunfo Biosphere preserve. 

Organic-certified stocks appear to be quite limited this season across the board, so if you need top quality organic blend and single origin level community and producer lots, these offerings from Chiapas are the place to cover that need. First shipments will be afloat in April, arriving May through July.

MENU PLANNING

During harvest, things move fast. That’s never been more true than it is now, but our work is to provide you with the stability to make good decisions about your menu plan for the coming weeks and months, as well as with coffees that offer great value. As always, get in touch with any questions—we’re here to help. 

Interested in sourcing coffee with us? Reach out at info@redfoxcoffeemerchants.com. To learn more about our work, check out our journal and follow us on Instagram @redfoxcoffeemerchants.