CENAPROC - Central Asociados de Productores de Cafe

CENAPROC is located in the mountainous southwest region of Caranavi, Boliva. The terrain is fertile and lies on the eastern facing slopes of the Western Andean Range. It was founded in 1992 by small farmers who organized themselves around a commercial objective: to maximize their returns on coffee sales. They now have 171 members cultivating 1,185 hectares of land mostly in shady forests. Three colonies formed the original cooperative: Nueva Llusta, Nueva Cannan and Libertador. Since then, an additional five colonies (or small groups of growers) have joined CENAPROC. Each colony is independently run, but depends on CENAPROC for larger-scale coordination and commercialization of their coffee.

The organic coffee program was established shortly after they founded the organization. In 1997, the group received organic certification from BIOPACHA and has since been additionally certified by BOLICERT and IMO. Their quality has steadily improved with consulting from other Central American coffee technicians. They now process and dry their coffee before it is transported over the Andes to La Paz and onto ships in the ports of Peru. This has significantly improved the quality of the beans because they are already dry and don’t run as much risk of turning moldy during the long journey. They have won several Bolivian cupping competitions and regularly place in the highest rankings of other competitive events.