The Andihuela community is very close to the capital of Cusco’s Santa Teresa district. A rarity in this generally remote, impassable subregion of La Convencion province, it only takes Andihuela’s producers 15 minutes to deliver their coffee to the central warehouse in the capital (also called Santa Teresa).
The producers of the community intercrop their Typica- and Bourbon-varietal coffee plants using native leguminous Pacay trees for shade, nitrogen fixing, and optimal moisture retention in the soil. After harvesting their coffee, they carry out fermentation in plastic barrels for approximately 14 hours and then dry the coffee in solar dryers for about 14 days, depending on weather.
This small community is made up of 25 families, the majority of them speakers of the native language Quechua. All smallholders, the average farmer’s plot size here is 2.5 hectares. This community resides in the valley formed by the Sacsara and San Ignacio rivers, and the proximity of the rivers along with the general lushness of the area creates ideal conditions for top-quality coffee production.
