Finca El Peten at SCAA conference 2009 in Atlanta – 04/09

John Thompson recently returned from Atlanta and the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s annual conference at the GA World Congress Center.  Every year, a different country receives special attention and this year Nicaragua was the featured country.  At the welcoming reception, we heard from Mario Salinas (Minister of the Nicaraguan Tourism Institute, INTUR) and a variety of other non-inspiring speakers. The highlight was actually the Embassador from Ethiopia that shared with us the progress his country has made in developing regulations, standards, and trade negotiations with the rest of the world.  There has been a lot of dialogue about Ethiopian coffee as it’s indeed the birthplace of coffee and feels a strongly about it’s inherent rights and priveleges as such.

0409-1

After the speakers, we attended a cocktail party complete with a beautiful display of Nicaraguan folkloric dancing, free Flor de Cana rum drinks, and lots of networking.  In fact, the networking we began that night was an indicator of what benefits lay ahead during the following 3 days of the conference.  JT met up with a few hotel operators in Nicaragua that are very interested in selling our coffee at their establishments, as well as connecting us with the small hotel operators association of Nicaragua in order to promote eco-tourism in Northern Nicaragua.

Although we don’t run our eco-lodge as a public hotel, it was good to see folks with similar intentions of sustainable development via eco-tourism.  Along the same lines, JT met Patricia Valiente who is a consultant out of El Salvador who has developed tourism “routes” in El Salvador.  They discussed best practices and lessons learned from developing eco-tourism routes focused on sustainability.

0409-3

The next day the expo opened and they spent the afternnoon chatting with Alan Odom from Interamerican Coffee, who has bought our coffee this year.  Great guy with great intentions for us.  He understands our approach to coffee and the local community and is connecting us with the like minded business contacts.  He introduced JT to the president of Elan Organic Coffees. She founded the International Women’s Coffee Alliance and invited JT to breakfast the following day to celebrate the signing in of Nicaragua, the 4th chapter along with Peru, Guatemala, and Costa Rica.

0409-2

JT met the president of the Nicaraguan chapter at that breakfast presentation and they are very interested in learning more about how we work with women from our local community Los Robles, Jinotega.  Womens groups had a very big presence at the conference and we looking forward to working with these organizations this year.  Grounds for Health is an organization that reached out to over 1,000 women in Matagalpa and Jinotega last Fall through their detection and treatment of Cervical Cancer programs.  They might be able to come to our farm to do the same kind of program this year, with fewer people of course!

There were amazing people doing great things for the community… in fact, the Specialty Coffee industry really seems to be a group of folks wanting to make a difference and very open to collaboration and sharing ideas.  On the business side, JT furthered conversation with a roaster in Atlanta who brings in coffee from Nicaragua in several containers annually.  We are working out the details for him to bring a couple hundred pounds of coffee into Atlanta… We would like to begin a little cottage industry for US distribution this year.  We’ll have our labels and bags ready soon, so be on the look out for possible markets.

Comments Off on Finca El Peten at SCAA conference 2009 in Atlanta – 04/09

back to top

Finca Java Videos

President Ortega Visits Finca El Peten


Farm Flyover


A Day at the Farm


Making Bocacci


Making Charcoal


Monoculture vs Polyculture


The Role of Microbes


Luxury Accommodations


Organic Farm Living


Wildlife & Eco Activities

What’s Up
EL PETEN COFFEE AVAILABLE 10/11/12

We are pleased to announce that this year’s harvest is now available from Flamenco Organic coffee Co. It is offered as a single origin SHG as that is extremely important to us. All purchases will help fund all the social projects currently funded by Finca Java including http://www.proyectonica-agua.org/index.html and http://www.comunidadconnect.org/ Our good friends at Taylormade […]


Reforestation at Finca El Peten

One of the many benefits of cultivating organic coffee is the symbiotic relationship a healthy harvest has with the trees that shade the plantation. At Finca Java, we feel blessed with the opportunity to incorporate reforestation into our master plan for Finca El Peten. We have been planting indigenous hardwoods for the last four years, […]


Finca Java’s Commitment to Community

Finca Java was created 4 years ago as an endeavor to preserve and improve the environment through organic coffee cultivation and reforestation, support the local economy through job creation, and nurture a higher quality of life for those less fortunate in our community of Los Robles. By committing ourselves to practice organic permaculture at Finca […]


July 2011 – Planting season begins!

So much has happened since our last post, from the cultivation of our coffee trees to the exciting work we are doing in the community of Los Robles. In future posts, we will be sharing more detailed news of our efforts through images, videos, and updates. Currently, there are 50,000 coffee plants from our nursery […]


Christmas 2009 at Finca El Peten – 12/09

The holiday season was welcomed with high spirits this year on the farm.


Finca El Peten at SCAA conference 2009 in Atlanta – 04/09

John Thompson recently returned from Atlanta and the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s annual conference at the GA World Congress Center.


Nicaragua’s President Ortega visits Finca El Peten – 03/09

President Daniel Ortega showed up at the farm by helicopter to give a speech on self-sustainability and organic agriculture!


Finca El Peten hosted a party for the outgoing mayor – 01/09

We hosted a party for the outgoing mayor and all associated dignitaries this weekend at El Peten.


New Years party at Finca El Peten – 01/09

We hosted a New Year´s party for the new mayor, vice mayor, ministers of government agencies, and head of the local army base


International Permaculture Seminar at Finca El Peten – 08/08

Eighty-five agricultural engineers different countries descended on Finca El Peten for a diplomado on the merits of Permaculture.