Our Colombia Huila is not one farm. It is fourteen smallholdings around Pitalito, most of them under three hectares, pooled through a cooperative that mills and dries the lot together.
We visited in August, during the fly crop. What struck us was how much of the quality was decided after picking: raised beds under mesh, turned four times a day, and a moisture meter checked obsessively.
We pay 38% over the commodity price for this lot, agreed a year ahead. That premium is the reason the cooperative could replace the drying beds that the 2024 rains took out.