Guatemalan Coffee From the Source
When you go to Starbucks and buy your grande cup of Guatemalan coffee, do you ever wonder how it got from Guatemala to your local Starbucks ? I did some research while living and working there and found some interesting information. The area around Lake Atitlan in Guatemala is a coffee grower's dream. Surrounded by three volcanoes and lots of vegetation, coffee beans are shade grown and abundant. Connie, a Mayan woman from San Pedro La Laguna, worked in the internet cafe and her husband's family sold its coffee beans to Anacafe. Sadly, they only received $80 per 100-pound coffee beans. Think about it. The profit margin is substantial, even with the cost to export and sell.
From October until January, coffee season is at its prime and entire Mayan families spend the morning picking coffee beans. It is quite common to see small Mayan girls carrying their baby sibling on their backs, while Mom and Dad pick the coffee beans for their survival. Often barefoot, toothless, dirty and hungry, coffee farmers work hard and long to harvest the coffee, earning a pittance for their labor while Americans sip Guatemalan coffee at $1.75 a cup, without a care for the hands that picked the beans.
