Albino Ibias and his family live in the small village of Acconcharcas, an area deep in the Incahuasi Valley. Albino is an agroforestry expert trained in Inca traditions, and his meticulous harvesting and processing methods are guided by his son Saulo, a Q Grader and the cooperative’s quality control manager.
Historically, the lack of infrastructure in the Acconcharcas area made it difficult to produce high-quality coffee: transporting the coffee to the nearest paved town took three days on horseback, which made coffee cultivation unprofitable; as a result, for years, cochineal production was prioritized over coffee. In recent years, thanks to improved quality management, feedback received, and better prices, Albino has increased his coffee production, expanding his farm into the higher-altitude shade forest.
Gesha Inca is the local name for SL9, an heirloom variety of Ethiopian origin that has been mutating in the area for decades. For a long time, it was a neglected variety due to its low yield, but with more experienced quality management, Albino is planting more and more of these trees at higher altitudes, with excellent results and benefits that extend throughout the community.
Agroforestry methods are shared among the producers of the Incahuasi Cooperative, which also provides farmers with field agronomists and support in the use of organic compost and fertilization twice a year, coinciding with the flowering and ripening of the coffee cherries. Weeding and pruning are carried out after the rainy season, between May and August, while during the dry harvest season, from September to December, irrigation is provided by the area’s numerous springs. Most producers separate their coffee crops from the rest of their agricultural production by planting shade trees—mostly native species such as cedar, tarco, oak, and yanay—among the coffee plants, which helps preserve the ecosystem and local insect populations.
The cooperative’s members share the same Inca heritage and culture, and even today they practice Minka—shared labor on community infrastructure projects—and Ayni—daily collaboration among farmers—practices that refine the craft from generation to generation. The harvest in the Incahuasi Valley is also the latest in all of Peru, due to its extreme altitude and isolated climate in southwestern Cusco: it begins in September, peaks in October, and on the highest-altitude plots, picking continues into November, with the final harvests taking place in December.
