MEXICO ELIAZIM PEREZ - FILTER

Eliazim is 40 years old and has been working with coffee for 20 years. He has two coffee fields of 1Ha each. He planted them in 2011, with the help of the family and other people from the community. He has Bourbon, Caturra, Anacafé 14, Mundo Novo, Obatá and Sarchimor varieties. 

During harvest, the coffee is picked by paid workers from neighbouring communities and the fermentation and drying is done by Eliazim, his wife and his daughters. Out of harvest the fields get cleaned, pruned and fertilised the shade is controlled. Coffee is the family´s only source of income and the earnings get reinvested in the coffee and used to ensure the wellbeing of the family. Eliazim usually keeps 50kg of coffee for the family. 

Compared to the state of Oaxaca, there seems to be more machismo in Chiapas. It is Mexico’s largest coffee producing region, yet female coffee producers are very uncommon here. In comparison, Oaxaca coffee producers are roughly 50/50 men and women.

Coffee as a crop is far more important for Chiapan producers than it is for Oaxacan producers. Oaxaca has a strong history of wood as a cash commodity, whereas Chiapas is very coffee dependent, with considerable infrastructure and fertiliser distribution to the producers here.