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Mexico

Mexico's coffee scene is evolving away from the old image of coyotes and undervalued farmers. Meet some of the local players who are driving change and bringing exceptional, traceable coffees to the market.

Mexico's coffee story has long been tied to coyotes, the middlemen who often don’t pay farmers what they deserve. With 85% of producers being indigenous, non-Spanish speaking, and small-scale, cultivating less than 3 hectares in remote areas, coyotes have had the upper hand. But here's the good news: things are starting to change. Local players are stepping up, paying more for parchment, and pushing the competition to follow suit.

Verified Sellers from

Mexico

Discover the right supplier for your roastery, from innovative farmers and independent exporters to certified cooperatives. Volume lots, micro-lots, blends or single varieties... You'll find what you're looking for.

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Marchantia

Association

We are a project that seeks to work towards environmental conservation through the production of specialty coffee. With biologists, certified tasters, agronomists, social facilitators and farmers, we are moving towards better socio-environmental development.

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Cafeologia

Single Farm, Group of Farms, Exporter

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Unión De Ejidos Y Comunidades San Fernando

Cooperative, Mill
FairTrade, Organic Bio Suisse, Organic

Unión de Ejidos y Comunidades San Fernando is a sustainable social enterprise, made up of small producers of Organic and Certified Fair Trade coffee. We have consolidated ourselves over the years and today we have relevance for our producer partners throughout the state. The most important thing for us is to improve the quality of life of the members who make up our organization in an integral way, in aspects such as; productivity, housing, food, health, education, among others. We are also aware that the only way to achieve this will be the constant work that each one of us carries out to achieve our goals and this work has been recognized over the years by our customers, who receive a quality product and service. We are producers of Arabica coffee, harvested between 950 and 1,700 meters above sea level in the Center, Frailesca and Sierra economic regions of the state of Chiapas.

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DM Sustainable

Single Farm, Mill, Exporter
Rainforest Alliance

We are Mexico's first and only solar panel powered coffee farm in a town internationally recognized for handling organic waste: Teocelo, Coatepec, Veracruz - Cooperation Mexico / Denmark - high focus on sustainability with our co-owners https://cofoco.dk/media/images/cofoco-sustainability-report-2018.pdf - We offer +80 rated coffee and tailored solutions - 3rd generation Mexican coffee growers behind - Launched in 2018

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Beneficio Custepec S.A. de C.V

Single Farm, Washing station, Mill, Exporter
Rainforest Alliance

Café Custapec trades the coffees of the most prestigious coffee farms in Chiapas, Mexico. The family-owned farms go back to 100 years and currently run by the fourth generation. Café Custepec is a family-owned business that grows, processes and sells coffee. 15 estates with a total area of 3,379 hectares form the site. The production area occupies 1,136 hectares devoted to harvesting coffee under the shade of trees. The remaining 2,243 hectares are managed as natural areas. The Finca Custepec is located in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, in the slope of the Gulf, in the Municipality of La Concordia in the Reserva de la Biosfera El Triunfo, a buffer zone rich in biodiversity. Since its founding in 1911 by Don Juan Pohlenz Dieckmann, Café Custepec has been dedicated to the production and export of Strictly High Grown Superior Coffee. The area of a Concordia and Jaltenango has many good coffees for two main reasons: altitude and climate.

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Tueste Café

Mill, Commercial Representative

We are the 4th generation of a coffee dedicated family, mostly developing coffee equipment for wet and dry mills. Since 2020, Tueste Café has focused on uniting the coffee chain through processing its own beans, offering courses at the Coffee School Escuela del Café Tueste Café and distributing coffee equipment. Our labor begins with the farmer, we give them training and tools to improve their practices in order to obtain a better price and improve their quality of life. We receive the cherries from the local farmers, process the cherries in the Processing Center for Specialty Coffees at the Coffee School and assure the quality for our clients to get the best of Mexican coffee.

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BUNA café rico

Commercial Representative
B Corp

Our mission is to share rich coffee to conserve Mexican ecosystems. We tour the ecosystems of our country to learn about its biodiversity and soils. We collaborate with Mexican farmers to implement agroforestry practices and design quality processes for their harvest. We transform the raw materials that result from these collaborations, to share coffee, chocolate and honey. All rich, nutritious and vital. Our focus is conservation. We achieve this by increasing biodiversity, productivity and well-being.

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Comercializadora Exportadora YAXCOFFEE CAFÉ VERDE S.C. DE R.I. DE C.V.

Cooperative
UTZ Certified, FairTrade, FairTrade, Certimex, Organico Sagarpa, Organico Sagarpa, Organico Sagarpa, Organic, Organic, Organic

The cooperative comprises 1536 small coffee farmers, all of them belonging to the indigenous ethnicities Tzeltal and Chol. They live in the remote area of Tumbalá, Chiapas where their languages and their culture could survive. YAX means "green" in the indigenous language Tzeltal and it refers to the indigenous concept of the members of the cooperative who consider "Mother Earth" as the base of any life. Organic production under shadow trees without any application of chemical substances and with a high diversity of plants in the coffee plantation to guarantee the survival of the Biodiversity is very important to them. Their vision is to improve the living conditions of small coffee producers through the production, gathering, processing, and marketing of high-quality, organic, and fairtrade coffee organized by the social cooperative Yaxcoffee. Young producers see a future for themselves growing high quality coffee instead of migration.

Coffee is grown in 15 Mexican states, with Chiapas, Veracruz, and Puebla leading the way, followed by Oaxaca and Guerrero. These states, nestled in the South, are known as the Gulf region. Mexico produces both Arabica (85%) and Robusta (15%), with a lot of the renovated area now planted with rust-resistant varieties. The blend of traditional and innovative practices is giving Mexican coffee a fresh edge.

The economic shift

Historically, coffee played a huge role in Mexico's economy and was a key source of foreign currency. However, in the 1980s, facing debt, the government introduced neoliberal reforms and pulled all support for farmers. Left to fend for themselves, farmers formed cooperatives to access credit and certifications. Despite these challenges, Mexican coffee, particularly organic-certified, has carved out a niche, with around 35% of the crop being high-quality Arabica grown above 900 meters.

Tradition meets innovation

Though overlooked as a source of top-tier specialty coffee in the past, Mexico’s Southern states benefit from Gulf winds that bring cool temperatures and extend the cherry ripening period. And while the country's coffee production is steeped in tradition and somewhat resistant to change, the growing availability of advanced agricultural techniques is opening Mexico’s potential for amazing coffees. 

As agricultural innovation spreads, Mexico's coffee industry is beginning to reveal its true potential. From Chiapas to Oaxaca, the quality of Mexican coffee is turning heads. Producers and exporters here are also often highly aware of their environmental challenges, embracing sustainable production practices as a cause. Beyond traders and tasters, biologists and agronomists play an active role in this supply chain.

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