The construction of the mills forms part of the Program to Improve Wet Coffee Mills in Nicaragua, which is being financed by the Common Fund for Commodities (a loan of US$1.6 million) and the Rural Credit Fund (US$525,000). Producers are contributing US$200,000 in local labor and materials to construct the mills.
The Ministry of Development, Industry and Trade (MIFIC) is executing the program and IICA is responsible for the technical supervision.
“The new mills are going to have a functional structure, to handle and make productive use of the pulp and run-off water, and a system of fermentation differentiated according to the altitude at which the farm is located,” said IICA’s Representative in Nicaragua, Gerardo Escudero.
Most traditional mills operated by small producers simply remove the coffee pulp, with the waste finding its way into water sources. Furthermore, the designs of traditional mills do not take into consideration the day on which production peaks and the time it takes for the beans to ferment.
According to the person appointed by IICA to supervise the program, Livio Saenz, the common denominator of the environmentally-friendly proposal is the capacity to process the harvest on the day when production peaks, to avoid building overly large structures based, erroneously, on the total volume of production.
Five proposals have already been drawn up. The designs include a system that uses approximately one quarter of the water used previously and the innovative use of two fermentation sinks for coffee plantations located at higher altitudes.
Saenz explained that coffee produced at altitude takes over 24 hours longer to ferment if high quality is the goal. “Thus, with an extra sink producers do not have to interrupt the process as more and more of the freshly picked coffee arrives."
The mills will be constructed over a three-year period. The first 200 applications have been received from coffee growers in Esteli, Nueva Segovia, Madriz, Jinotega and Matagalpa.
Taken from the February edition of Agronoticias, Nicaragua.