Attia Wilson Culma, Colombia | Washed

Wilson Culma is the owner of finca El Mirolindo which is 4 Ha farm located in Ortega, Tolima. He has been growing coffee for since 2015 when he purchsed the farm with his wife. Before that he had been working as a farm labourer. The farm only has 1ha of coffee and also includes a 3ha area of natural forest that he protects. The varietals on the farm are castillo, and pink bourbon with a total of about 7000 trees.

In the harvest coffee is picked every 18 days with the pickers receiving a premium for ripe cherry selection. Once the coffee is picked and taken to the beneficio it is left in cherry in bags for 14 hours. It is then pulped and ferments for 48 hours in a tiled tank with some water to cover it. The coffee is then dried initially in direct sunlight for 24 hours to remove the initial moisture and then for 15 - 20 days until target moisture is reached.

Wilson Culma has been a member of Cafe Agrario for 6 years and it is an association of producers from Ortega in Tolima. Most of the associates are coffee growers and there are 35 associates. Wilson is the association Treasurer.

Cafe Agario has seen some difficulties being situated in a region troubled by the civil war but also from poor leadership and coffees being sold on credit to coffee buyers that never paid for coffee delivered.

In the more recent years they have been focusing on specialty coffee to add value to their product and then also being roasting and selling coffee locally. Siruma our specialty export partners in Colombia and have invested in this community and their agronomist, Pilar has been delivering workshops to this group on coffee processing and also how to organise the structure of the Association as this was highlighted as a need for them from taking baseline data.