The Story

Monte Verde Farm has been in the Meléndez family for over 80 years now and it’s located in the coffee zone of Acatenango region of course overlooking a spectacular volcano El Fuego. Current owners of the farm, Roxana and Mariela Meléndez are the fourth generation coffee producers.

It’s amazing to see a farm run by two sisters that work together side by side and set strong goals for the future of their farm. Roxana manages the farm day to day and she has been doing so for the last 5 years.

In those years she was able with the help of her sister, Mariela to set up a small wet mill and process coffee to open more possibilities for their farm as before they were dependent on the local cooperative.

They continue to sell coffee to the cooperative but now they’re able to process a certain part of their coffee on their own and open the market.

The total area of coffee grown at the farm is 14 hectares and includes varieties such as caturra, bourbon, Anacafe 14, geisha, paraíso, yellow bourbon and catuai.

Additionally the farm has an area of 6 hectares of natural forest and 3 hectares that the sisters decided to make it available to their workers to cultivate corn and beans for their workers’ personal needs.

Roxana’s goal for the farm is to make it viable and sustainable therefore she started planting varieties like Anacafe 14 that are more resistant and more productive. She still wants to keep the traditional varieties like caturra and bourbon and she’s been working hard to keep them in good health. Some of the bourbon and caturra in Monte Verde are around 60 to 70 years old and they’re looking very impressive.