After a wave of protests, things are coming back to a state of normalcy in Colombia and our local team is keeping busy. They are working on the development of coffee, honey and cacao production, in addition to establishing a baseline for carbon projects and construction of a new coffee dry mill. The RioSierra project, located in the Sierra Nevada, Colombia highlights many of these activities for our article this week.
Q&A with Anderson Rondano Gomez RioSierra's Manager
How is the RioSierra project progressing and what is the team working on?
The project is still at an early stage, and we are finishing up some of the basics. Here are some of the simultaneous tasks we are working on:
Formation of the work team
Validation of agroforestry systems design with local partner Red Ecolsierra.
Design of a biofertilizer production plant.
Construction of a coffee dry mill and warehousing facility.
Initial design of honey and cacao activities.
What coffee profile are we looking at?
We are noticing different coffee profiles due to the geographical characteristics of the Sierra Nevada mountain range of Santa Marta. Coffee cultivation starts at 900 meters above sea level and goes all the way up to 1900 MASL. We have temperatures ranging from 13C to 30C. The Sierra Nevada mountain range has one single harvest per year which takes place between the months of October and January. Here’s what we have been cupping:
The average cup profile presents fruity notes of tangerine and blackberries, dark chocolate, with notes of honey, cream, and a caramel finish.
Coffee cup quality ranges between 82-84pt specialty grade.
We are seeing an adequate balance and perfect uniformity.
The scores show an acidity of (7.75), with an aroma of (7.75) and a body of (7.75), which presents the fresh and light characteristics of Sierra Nevada flavor profile.
Can you name a milestone within RioSierra that makes the team proud?
There are three milestones that we are proud of:
The constitution of RioSierra SAS as an agribusiness accelerator in Colombia.
The wonderful team we have gathered around our great project.
The participative work we have done with Ecolsierra for the coffee agroforestry systems.
How does the team feel about the opening of the new coffee dry mill for the Café Selva Norte Project in Peru? When can we expect to see progress?
For the RioSierra team, the opening of the CSN Dry Mill in Peru is quite important and exciting. It allowed us to visualize the future developments and implementations for the RioSierra projects. We are very motivated and focused on achieving the goal of building our own dry mill facility.
At the moment we are in the selection process for the site and milling equipment. Things are moving along nicely.
What is coming for RioSierra in 2022-2023?
Financing of the first agroforestry systems with members of Red Ecolsierra.
Opening of the coffee dry mill and biofertilizer plant.
Implementation of the carbon project and monitoring impacts of agroforestry systems.
We feel very optimistic for the future of this project and we are eager to share more developments as they come.
Saludos,
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