FINCA SANTA MATILDE - FAMILIA ACOSTA
Location: Apaneca - El Salvador.
Varieties: Bourbon and Caturra
Processes: Natural and Honey
Altitude: 1300 MASL
Finca Santa Matilde, is located in El Salvador, as one of the highest level coffee at the national level. The Santa Matilde farm is located in Ataco, and produces a wide variety of international quality coffee.
Concepción de Ataco is located in the heart of the Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountain range, an area that was declared a World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 2007.
This area was occupied by indigenous groups for about 2,600 years, during the pre-Classic Maya period. In some of the communities founded by them persisted indigenous groups, Pipiles or Kakis, faithful to their culture and customs.
The Biosphere Reserve Apaneca - Ilamatepec, is located in the north west of El Salvador. It covers the Apaneca - Ilamatepec mountain range, with an area of 59,056 hectares. Its central coordinates in Latitude - Longitude (WGS 84) are 89 ° 40'00 "W and 13 ° 50'00" N.
The main anthropic use of the soil is characterized by a diverse floristic composition, with several strata, that protects the soil and offers, better than other uses, the connection between the remnants of natural vegetation, protected or not, that are found in the area and they contribute greatly in the conservation of biodiversity in the country.
"Shaded coffee plantations" provide a range of environmental goods and services that are of vital importance for the functioning of the remaining natural ecosystems.
They are the most extensive productive system of the Biosphere Reserve (covering 68% of its surface), and as several studies indicate, they are agroecosystems that conserve an important diversity of species.
The cultivation of coffee with shade is one of the most important activities from the economic, historical and cultural point of view, both for the communities that live in the area and for the Salvadoran Nation. The cultivation and benefit of coffee has begun to be certified since 1999.
The Ariz Herrera family were pioneers in the cultivation of coffee in the privileged region of Apaneca-Ilamatepec.
Don Manuel Ariz emigrated from Galicia, Spain to El Salvador in the 50s of the 19th century, and together with his wife, Doña Josefa Herrera, they started their coffee business in the city of Concepción de Ataco, Ahuachapán.
They began a long family tradition that was continued by their children: Matilde, his grandson Mario and 2 more generations that to date continue to produce and generate jobs and social welfare in the community for more than a century and a half.
