For much of the youth in Colombia, it’s not very appealing to run a coffee farm.

Farmers have struggled for decades to make ends meet on the commodity coffee market, selling their crop for lower than the cost of production. It’s easy to see why this is a bleak vision of the future – being indebted to banks and loan sharks and living in poor conditions.   

In fact, Mauricio Vega, like many in their teenage years, planned to move from his rural home to the city for a career in sales. That’s until he saw us work with his father on the El Cairo farm – as a result, the family significantly improved their living conditions and moved into a renovated house.

It was at that point that he saw a real chance to prosper with speciality coffee. Shortly afterwards, with the help of his dad, Faiber, he bought the La Pedregosa farm and began working with our head of coffee, Will, to optimise the growing process

He sold his very first crop to us and was immediately in a profitable position. It’s been almost four years since then, and Mauricio is more determined than ever.

He’s incredibly proud and thankful to sell his coffee to the Pact community, and now, as a successful businessman still in his early 20s, he has big ambitions – to create the world’s very best coffee.

Mauricio is a pioneer for what’s to come with this exciting new wave of Colombian speciality coffee producers. We’ll continue to pay great prices for what’s undeniably fantastic coffee to allow him to invest in infrastructure. And his fourth crop with us continues to show what fantastic results can come from young, promising confidence.

You can taste it for yourself in his fruity, juicy espresso now or enjoy it as a filter coffee towards the end of the summer.