Diego Samuel started with his coffee growing project Finca El Paraiso in 2008. To him growing coffee was fascinating. He loved visiting his friend’s farms and seeing them growing coffee. No one in his family grew coffee at that time, so he likes to say that he’s been adopted by the coffee growing industry. His family owned a farm that was isolated so Diego saw the opportunity to grow coffee there. After getting the permission of his family to start growing coffee he began a 2.5 hectares project while doing his studies on Agricultural Enterprise Management. Selling his coffee to the local cooperatives allowed him to pay for his studies and start evolving as a coffee producer. After asking himself why he couldn’t afford more than his studies with the money from the he coffee sold he decided to start building a larger network. He began going to different shows in different regions, meeting people, and realized that there were other ways to produce coffee in different qualities, from different varieties and submitting them to different contests.
In 2015 he participated for the first time in a regional contest where he was awarded first place. Thanks to this his coffees began to get better recognition further motivating him to continue growing excellent coffees.
Today, through his company IINDESTEC (Innovación y Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Caficultura) Diego has managed to create new innovative technologies in order to keep the consistency of his great cup profiles, not only from his farm, but for neighboring farms of his family and friends as well. He says that he likes to be out of his comfort zone as this has been always helped him to keep evolving.
