From the age of 8, Mario helped his father on the family farm, doing whatever he could until he was 15. At that point, the area where the farm was located became part of the war zone, and the entire family had to flee. In 1991, after things had calmed down somewhat, Mario managed to return to the farm and restart coffee production.
Mario recalls that when they first resumed farming, the area had very poor access roads, and the coffee had to be transported on horseback for 8 kilometers to reach the nearest point where a vehicle could access it. A new road was under construction, but despite significant delays, it was finally completed in October 1998. That same month, Hurricane Mitch struck northern Nicaragua and destroyed the newly built road. Mario dryly remembers that after just one week of using the new road, they had to return to transporting coffee by horse again. Fortunately, the reconstruction of the road was not delayed, and by the following harvest, it was back in operation.
Mario began producing specialty coffee five years ago and hasn’t looked back. He employs up to 40 workers during the harvest to help pick the cherries. The biggest change for him has been training his workers to selectively pick only the ripe cherries.
