Bolivia has the potential to produce truly great coffees, and already does in very small quantities. The country’s entire production is smaller than that of one of Brazil’s larger coffee farms. Production is shrinking year on year, and coffee farms are disappearing at an alarming rate. We may soon see coffees from Bolivia (especially great ones) almost disappear.
Frustratingly there is little information available about the introduction of coffee and the history of coffee growing in Bolivia. There are reports of substantial coffee production in the country going back to the 1880s, but not a great deal more. The country is large, about the same size as Ethiopia or Colombia. It is landlocked, which has traditionally posed something of a challenge to the export of coffee, adding both time and cost.
Bolivia is relatively unpopulated, with just 10.5 million inhabitants. The population is often characterized as being incredibly poor, with around 25 per cent categorized as living in extreme poverty. The country’s economy is reliant on minerals and natural gas as well as agriculture, although coffee has never really featured prominently. It is impossible to ignore the impact on the economy, and on agriculture, of coca grown for the drug trade. Farmers are increasingly switching from coffee to coca, because coca provides greater security for producers because the price is subject to less variance. In 2010 and 2011, while coffee prices were high, anti-drugs programmes funded by Bolivia and the US managed to encourage more farmers to switch to coffee production. However, the price of coffee has fallen again and many farmers have turned once more to coca.
The conditions for growing coffee in Bolivia are, in many ways, ideal. There is certainly the necessary altitude, and the climate has nicely defined wet and dry seasons. Most of the coffee grown here is old heirloom varieties, such as Typica and Caturra. Some excellent, clean and complex coffees have been coming out of Bolivia recently, although this wasn’t always the case. In the past, producers picked and pulped the coffees they grew and then transported the pulp to a central processing station. There were two big problems: firstly, changes in temperature on the journey to the processing station could result in the coffee freezing and, secondly, the pulp still contained enough moisture to keep fermenting. Often this resulted in a loss of quality or undesirable flavours creeping in. More and more, quality-conscious producers are doing the post-harvest work on their own farms. The US has funded the construction of a number of small coffee washing stations across the country as part of the anti-drugs programme. However, despite changes to help bolster quality, coffees from Bolivia still lack the reputation of those from neighbouring countries such as Colombia or Brazil.
Competitions such as The Cup of Excellence have helped shine a light on the best coffees in Bolivia. I would recommend seeking out and enjoying them while they are still around. Even though speciality coffee does yield a greater return, even quality-conscious farmers are still giving up coffee production.
TRACEABILITY
Coffees in Bolivia are typically traceable down to a single farm or cooperative. Due to land reforms, large-scale land ownership has reduced since 1991, and the 23,000 families that produce coffee in Bolivia do so from small farms, typically 1.2–8 hectares (3–20 acres). The export of Bolivia’s output is handled by a small number, around thirty, of private exporting companies.
TASTE PROFILE
The best Bolivian coffees tend to be very sweet and very clean, but relatively rarely are they particularly fruity in flavour.
GROWING REGIONS
Population: 11,411,000
Number of 60kg (132lb) bags in 2016: 81,000
Coffee-growing regions in Bolivia have never been strongly defined and, as such, different roasters will use different naming conventions to describe which part of the country the coffee comes from.
Bolivia is ideal for coffee crops, but its topography means export and production are difficult – the old route from La Paz to Coroico seen here is known as the world’s most dangerous road.
YUNGAS
Approximately 95 per cent of Bolivia’s coffee is produced in this region, and in the past it held a reputation for quality in Europe, though less so recently. It can be defined as the region of forest stretching down the east side of the Andes, and in fact crosses from Peru through Bolivia into Argentina. The region produces some of the highest-altitude coffee in the world and this is also where coffee has been grown the longest in Bolivia. In his 1935 book, All About Coffee, Ukers refers to coffee from here as ‘Yunga’.
Yungas is to the west of La Paz so many coffee buyers have to travel along the famous Yungas Road, nicknamed the ‘Road of Death’, to reach the coffee producers there. The road is often a single lane, winding and dug into the sides of the mountains without any barrier to prevent vehicles dropping up to 600m (2,000ft) into the valleys below.
As the region is so large, many coffee roasters describe coffees as being from a more specific area, such as Caranavi, Inquisivi or Coroico, within the region.
| Altitude: | 800−2,300m (2,600–7,600ft) |
| Harvest: | July–November |
SANTA CRUZ
This is the most easterly of the departments in Bolivia, and generally it lacks the altitude for high-quality coffees. There is some coffee production around the Ichilo province, although coffee is far less important as a crop compared to rice or timber. This region is hugely important to the country’s economy because most of the natural gas is found here.
| Altitude: | 410m (1340ft) |
| Harvest: | July–November |
BENI
This is a large and sparsely populated department in the northeast of the country. Technically, part of Beni falls within the geographical region of Yungas, but a small amount of coffee is grown in the department outside the Yungas region. Primarily this is a cattle ranching area, although many crops are grown here, from rice and cacao to tropical fruits.
| Altitude: | 155m (500ft) |
| Harvest: | July–November |