About Finca Manuelion

Berta is both an entrepreneur and community leader who started a cooperative in a rural area where there are very few development opportunities.

She and her husband Sixto, having completed only a primary education, began their entrepreneurial endeavors by opening a local bakery and cultivating basic grains (corn and beans) on a parcel of land that Berta inherited from her father. Of the profits they received in these first businesses, they managed to obtain the resources necessary to buy the land where the pair began their dream of maintaining a coffee farm. In addition to seeing the coffee business as a way of supporting their family, Berta and Sixto wanted to create employment opportunities for other families within their community through the growth of their farm.

The Ortega family began their work in the cultivation of coffee in 1984 with seeds of the Pacas variety. They started planting the first seeds in the ground with Berta integrating herself into the process in whichever way possible, cooking lunch and sharing with the workers to learn about their daily duties. Little by little, they extended their seed variety by introducing Bourbon and Caturra. Currently, Berta has a total of 18 manzanas planted with coffee shaded by fruit trees and forest at an elevation of 1200 meters. Her farm is only two kilometers from her home in Yupiltepeque, Jutiapa, allowing for a location and height that permits Berta to grow and obtain a variety of specialty coffee. Berta maintains a level of attention in which she assures the maintenance of good agricultural practices and awaits the perfect moment to pick her coffee.

In the region, with the example of Berta and Sixto, other local farmers were inspired to grow coffee and after five years, several coffee growers who decided to create a cooperative: La Felicidad R.L. Together, they realized the advantages of working as a community in the cultivation of coffee and to this day are collaborating with their neighbors in the wet processing, consolidated transport, technical training, certifications and sales of their harvest.

So far, coffee has allowed Berta and her husband to support their children with their university education and create employment for many other families in their community. However, they face many difficulties such as a lack of a market for their coffees, lack of direct export, price volatility and many others that affect all growers. Despite all these difficulties, Berta and Sixto, together with the rest of the cooperative, continue to work hard not only to improve their techniques and quality of Guatemalan specialty coffee, but also to offer new horizons for the future generations of their community.