Next stop: Ecuador
Same means, different destination: for the next episode of Liaison Cupping, we are stopping in Ecuador.
When you think of Ecuador, cacao is maybe the first thing that comes to your mind. But Ecuador has a well-diversified coffee production as well, resulting from bioclimatically different producing regions. To better analyze such diversity, the next episode of Liaison Cupping revolves around Ecuador.
Join us and taste Ecuadorian coffee on Thursday, February 24th.
Before getting into the details of the different origins, we feel to take a step back and anticipate some data and facts, as shared by ACEDE, Asociacion de Cafes Especiales de Ecuador, and Pro Ecuador, Instituto de Promoción de Exportaciones e Inversiones.
In recent years, Ecuador has re-discovered its potential for coffee production, whose roots date back to the 1860s. Ecuador produces and exports washed and natural coffees, Arabica and Robusta.
Manabí, Loja, Zamora Chinchipe, Sucumbíos, Orellana and Santo Domingo, Ecuador counts six producing regions. 13,000 people are directly involved in the production of coffee, and 150,000 are employed in this industry indirectly. Women play a significant role in the industry: 37% of all workers are women actively participating. Indigenous populations are also part and parcel of the supply chain, particularly in the area of Northern Amazon.
The final product is affected by the biodiversity of the area in which coffee is cultivated: coffee plants can be found in sea level areas, such as Galapagos Islands, as well as in very elevated lands. You would not expect such a biodiversity from such a small country. This is what makes Ecuadorian coffee this diverse and complex.
In the next episode of Liaison Cupping, we are discovering a product which deserves to be known better: Ecuadorian coffee. And especially, we’ll get to know and cup coffees from Galapagos Islands, Loja, Pichincha, Chaguarpamba, Imbabura.