Boots on the Ground: Diary of a trip Producer & Roaster Forum in El Salvador
By Nathan Havey & Janeé Hartman
Bienvenidos a El Salvador! The OBIIS team made the journey to San Salvador (the capital of El Salvador) for the Producer Roaster Forum (PRF). Unlike other coffee conferences, PRF takes place in coffee-producing countries and is designed to be accessible to coffee producers.
The OBIIS Team, Nathan Havey & Nathan Church of HaveyPro, Edwin Martinez of Onyx Coffee, and Rich Schaasfma from Paramount Coffee are all here to support the OBIIS mission, make new connections, and spend some quality time with our producer partners.
Throughout the day, our friends and partners trickled in from their respected regions.
Finca Villaure – Huehuetenango, Guatemala (Aurelio Villatoro, Pedro Villatoro, Florencio Villatoro, and Riner Villatoro)
Elevar Coffee – Olancho, Honduras (Sandra Gissela Rivera , Juan Brianel Rosales, Eduardo Elpidio Acosta , and Nelson Alexander Figueroa)
Michelle Fish
Aurelio Villatoro, Finca Villaure
Edwin Martinez, Onyx Coffee
The Havey Pro team conducted interviews with Bob & Michelle as well as some of the OBIIS partners to document the journey as it unfolds, and to put a name, a face, and a place on our partners’ truly good coffee.
For the past three years, OBIIS has sponsored PRF. There is no better place to meet producers, and it’s a great opportunity to share what OBIIS is up to with the broader coffee world.
After all of the OBIIS partners arrived and settled in, we gathered for a dinner to mingle and get to know each other better before the conference opens tomorrow.
The OBIIS booth
Eduardo Elpidio Acosta, Elevar
The next day, hundreds of people arrived for the conference, and the OBIIS booth buzzed with activity. Meanwhile, in a room close by, the Elevar team sat for interviews.
But the big moment of the day happened that afternoon when the first documentary on an OBIIS partner, La Fortaleza, was screened to a packed house.
Nathan Havey, HaveyPro
HaveyPro has been refining this movie for almost two years, and the film that appeared on the screen was version 97. As the movie ended, several people even gave a standing ovation. That has not happened before, and it’s a good sign that the film is very nearly ready for release.
Nathan Church, Aurelio Villatoro, Pedro Villatoro, Florencio Villatoro, Riner Villatoro, & Nathan Havey
From left: Nathan Havey , Sandra Gissela Rivera , Nathan Church, Eduardo Elpidio Acosta, Nelson Alexander Figueroa, Pedro Villatoro, Florencio Villatoro, Riner Villatoro, and Aurelio Villatoro
That night, some of the team ventured into the city center to do some sightseeing. For most of us, it was our first time visiting. And for some of us, it was the first time being out of our own country. Claudia and Diana from partners worldwide, and an organization that works closely with Elevar, served as our tour guides. They proudly showed us the national library, the famous cathedral that was the home of Saint Oscar, and the fanciest Pizza Hut we’ve ever seen.
The conference got going a little more slowly the next day, but there was plenty of coffee, and soon things were buzzing again.
Bob had a presentation on the program, and as he stepped to the podium in front of a full room. He used his time to introduce Pedro Manga from Caravela, one of the thought leaders that taught OBIIS to focus on the price farmers are actually paid for their coffee at the farm gate. Pedro encouraged the audience to come and learn more at his masterclass.
And many people did come to hear Pedro’s full presentation, where he made a powerful case for why reporting farm gate price is essential for anyone who claims their coffee is sustainable and/or ethical. OBIIS is working with Pedro to make his groundbreaking work more widely available, and HaveyPro brought out the big cameras to capture Pedro’s presentation.
Soon, the booths in the exhibit hall began to come down, and we all gathered for a final dinner. We all had early departures in the morning and long journeys back to all the places we had come from. But tonight, we talked, we laughed, and we connected. Both sides of the coffee curtain building bonds across one big island in space.
