Finca Floripondio

The Rodríguez family started planting coffee at Finca Floripondio in 2014. The farm is named after the Floripondio tree (Angel’s Trumpet) which is native to the Samaipata region. The farm serves as a research facility for the Rodríguez family and Agricafe farms (agricafe.com.bo). Coffee varieties are cultivated and established at the farm nursery before being planted out in individual areas. Each variety has its own area of the farm. The arabica species has many natural and cultivated hybrids, variations, and mutations. Each variety has a particular favoured climate and altitude where it thrives. The aim of the facility is to discover which varieties do particularly well in the local environments. There are many areas of doing well that must be considered including: tree health and productivity, adaptability to the local environment, adaptability to processing method, and cup profile. It takes at least six years to establish a variety’s suitability for the Agricafe farms, so each experiment is carefully considered before being carried out. Seven varieties have come through this process to be farmed at Finca Floripondio: Caturra, Bourbon, Ethiosar, SL28, SL34, Yellow Pacamara, and Batian.