Spotlight on: Sol de la Mañana

To understand Sol de La Mañana, one first needs to be understand a bit about the family who founded the program. Pedro Rodríguez and his children, Daniela and Pedro Pablo, are staunch believers in, and tireless advocates for, Bolivian specialty coffee. The family owns 12 coffee farms of their own and they also run Agricafe, a company that comprises world-class specialty coffee processing facilities, a dedicated quality control lab, and an export operation that supplies international specialty roasters (like Market Lane) with unique and distinct Bolivian microlots. Pedro, Daniela and Pedro Pablo deeply understand coffee, and fervently believe in the quality and potential of Bolivian specialty coffee, and they inherently understand that to grow the industry, and ensure its future, they need to invest in it and share their knowledge.
 

One of the major ways the Rodríguez family supports the industry is through the Sol de la Mañana program, which they established in 2014 after a group of local producers approached them, asking for help. The volume of Bolivian coffee had been steadily declining and, after much discussion, the family decided they could help build a more sustainable future for the country’s coffee industry, and its coffee producers, by helping those producers improve their coffee quality and yield.
 

And so the Sol de la Mañana program was born. At that time, most of the coffee producers the Rodríguez family knew farmed using traditional, old-fashioned techniques, with little-to-no upkeep of their coffee trees outside of the harvest period. Sol de la Mañana (a fittingly hopeful, optimistic name that translates from Spanish to ‘the morning sun’) was set up as a school for producers, with a scientific, evidence-based curriculum that focuses on one aspect of farming at a time – including building and maintaining a nursery, how and when to use fertiliser, how to systematically prune coffee trees, and how and when to pick coffee cherries in the harvest period. Altogether, the program takes seven years to complete, so it requires a high level of time, commitment, work and trust on the part of the participants.

The results of Sol de la Mañana have been nothing short of profound. In its first year, the program offered training and support to ten farmers. Today, that number has grown to over 100 farmers in the Caranavi region, and production volumes are increasing every year. To the Rodríguez family’s delight, this is causing a ripple effect, with the program’s participants teaching its techniques to other local coffee farmers. “At first we did all the talking but now the producers are much more proactive and engaged,” Pedro Pablo told us. “They come to us with specific questions, and share their results and what they’ve learnt with each other. This is the real success of the program, as it has given the control back to the producers.”
 

One of the most significant outcomes of Sol de la Mañana is that it’s enabled specialty roasters like us to be connected with participating producers, to whom we wouldn’t otherwise have had access. Today, all the small-scale Bolivian producers we work with have participated in, and benefited from, the Sol de la Mañana program. One example is the incredible Carmela Aduviri, whose coffee we’ve offered since 2017. Carmela has been growing coffee on her three-hectare farm in the remote Copacabana settlement for almost 50 years. For most of that time, she sold her coffee on the local market, which meant low prices and little reliability. Through Sol de la Mañana, Carmela renovated her farm, improved her agricultural practices and increased her yields, making coffee a more sustainable, financially viable choice for her and her family. Off the back of this success, Carmela has been able to retire, and today her sons Elvis and Luis run Carmelita farm. “Coffee has brought our family together,” Carmela told us. “We used to live far apart, but now my sons are at the farm helping me every day. Coffee is a viable crop for us now.”

Julio Palli, whose coffee we’ve shared every year since 2019, has a similar success story. He and his wife Lupe Medina have farmed coffee in Copacabana since 2006. For the first ten years, the couple used traditional farming methods and sold their coffee locally for low prices. Then, in 2016, they joined Sol de la Mañana, following the program’s rigorous curriculum, carefully planting a nursery and drastically renovating their coffee plantation. Today, the couple produce exceptional yields of 30 bags per hectare (in the past they were producing around six bags per hectare), and their coffees are consistently sweet, clean and delicious. “Sol de la Mañana has opened my eyes,” Julio told us. “I genuinely enjoy making an effort and learning because it’s been an opportunity to change my life.” When we recently asked Julio about his hopes and plans for the future, he told us, “I’m already living my dream. I wanted to build a house in Caranavi and now I have that. Now I hope my children learn more about coffee and continue down this path.”
 

None of this would have happened without the vision, determination and hard work of the Rodríguez family. Sol de la Mañana has required a huge investment of time, capital and resources from the family, but they genuinely believe in Bolivian coffee and they care deeply about the producers whose lives they’re helping to improve. And we wholeheartedly believe in, and support, their mission. Bolivian coffee is delicious and the industry there has so much potential, which is why we work hard to build long-term relationships with quality-focused Bolivian producers, and we commit to offering their outstanding coffees every year. It’s our hope that with the continued success of Sol de la Mañana, and the ongoing support of international roasters like us, coffee lovers will continue to enjoy the country’s truly exceptional coffees, and coffee production will be a positive and sustainable choice for Bolivian farmers and their families, now and well into the future.