Lima, 17 October 2025 (IICA). Eddie Yasmani Abarca López makes it clear from the start. “I was born in the village of Santo Domingo, in Huabal district, Jaén Province in the Cajamarca Department of Peru”, he says, expressing pride in being “the son of a coffee farming family”. That is the calling card that speaks to the origins of a man who is promoting coffee development as the key to change in his region and community.
“I was born, raised and studied in the countryside. My parents grow coffee and so do I. I have a three-hectare coffee plantation”, reveals Eddie, who also serves as President of the Gold Coffee Perú association of agricultural producers – a group that began small but is now flexing its muscles, having made significant progress in organic and fair-trade certification, among other areas.
In recognition of his work, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) has named Abarca López as one of its Leaders of Rurality of the Americas. He will be conferred with the “Soul of Rurality” award, which the specialized international agency in agricultural and rural development created to give visibility to those who are making their mark in the area of food and nutritional security and sustainability, both in the region and the world.
Although he studied accounting in the city of Jaén, he never forgot his roots. After graduating, he decided to return to his hometown, but with another mindset. “Coming to the city from the country is a bit of a culture shock. But when I graduated, I firmly resolved to return to the country, but this time I adopted an associative approach”, he explains.
This return home changed his destiny and the destiny of hundreds of families. In 2019, he founded the Gold Coffee Perú association with 180 small farmers. Today, it has 600 members from Cajamarca and Amazonas, who in total are cultivating 1,200 hectares that have been certified as organic. Eddie has led the organization for the last six years and managed to consolidate a model combining quality, sustainability and social development.
His goal was clear from the start: to improve farmers’ lives. “When I returned to the country, I realized that the farmers and my family had made little progress. Thus, I started the association to assist them with projects, equipment and coffee mills”, says Eddie, who explains that recently the organization implemented a project valuing more than two million soles to support coffee growing families in the region in which Gold Coffee Perú operates.
Abarca maintains that all this work has spurred a significant leap in production and that Gold Coffee has helped farmers to boost their output threefold. “Today, each of our families harvests thirty or more quintales (equivalent to 100 kilograms) of coffee on average, which is wonderful, because when production increases, prices increase and this changes lifestyles”.
This development included introducing new technologies, such as more efficient equipment for wet processing the coffee, and gaining international certification. The association has received organic certification that has boosted the income of producers in the region. Eddie notes that , “Coffee is a commodity, but certification give us an edge. For example, with organic certification we receive thirty dollars more per quintal, and with fair trade certification, twenty dollars more. This means better prices for the producer and a different life”.
There have also been gains on the export side. The leader and farmer reveals that ninety-five percent of the coffee produced by Gold Coffee members is sold to Europe—in particular, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy—as unroasted beans and the organization has recently begun to access markets in the United States. They also developed five of their own brands of roasted and ground coffee for national consumption, aiming to promote greater consumption of high-quality coffee within Peru.
The social dimension is another pillar of this rural leader’s work. Eddie acknowledges that working with 600 farmers can sometimes be “extremely taxing”, because he has multiple responsibilities: social, commercial and financial. Yet, he embraces it with enthusiasm. “It may be tiring, but it’s also rewarding. The appreciation of people in the country is lovely: they don’t want you to leave, but you have to return to your family”.
His family is also an integral part of his story: his wife, two children (an eleven-year-old son and a daughter, who is six) and his plot, which he cultivates on the weekends. “Sometimes I bring along the older one, my son, so that he can begin to learn about the world of coffee.
Eddie’s goal from the start was to improve farmers’ lives and he explains that recently the organization implemented a project valuing more than two million soles to support coffee growing families in the region.
Profitability – allowing rural dwellers to remain at home
One of the distinctive features of Gold Coffee is inclusion. Abarca López calculates that of the 600 members in the association, more than 180 are women and approximately 80% are youth. “Nowadays, there is no difference between men and women. Women can also cultivate and produce good coffee. On the other hand, many young people are choosing to remain in the countryside. We encourage them to see their plot of land like a business that they can make profitable, which will allow them to remain in their hometown”.
This is a key message to curb rural flight, demonstrating that the countryside can provide opportunities. Eddie offers a concrete example. The state provides funding that is made available to the new generations of farmers. The youth are urged to view “their plot as a business”. Later, they begin to pay back the funding and “after four years they are already profitable”.
“Today, I can sincerely say that the countryside is quite profitable. We have never seen prices like this before” for coffee, Eddie reveals enthusiastically.
Sustainability is another key area of focus. Gold Coffee has reserved 125 hectares of prime forest land and works in accordance with the European deforestation-free regulation. The Peruvian manager explains that this required the organization to georeference all its plots to demonstrate environmental compliance and it also signed agreements with Peru’s Ministry of Agricultural Development and Irrigation.
“We made a tremendous investment in this work, but it was necessary. That is what Europe is demanding if we are to continue selling high quality coffee to the Old Continent”, he notes.
This commitment also includes bridging the knowledge gaps. Working with a team of agricultural and forestry engineers, coffee tasters and technical officers, Gold Coffee is training farmers in soil management, organic fertilization, harvesting and post-harvesting. Abarca López admits that at first there was “generational resistance” to the introduction of new technologies and methods, particularly from older farmers. “However, when we provided facts to demonstrate improved quality, this convinced them. Today, coffee farmers know how to assess the taste of their coffee and to teach others how”.
This effort has borne fruit, as Eddie reveals that the association’s coffees have now surpassed physical and sensory standards, thus opening the way to specialized coffee niches. In the meantime, rural infrastructure has improved considerably: housing, roads, drying and milling equipment. “The impact is visible. The difference been a farmer in the association and a non-member is enormous”, he insists.
When asked about Gold Coffee’s future, his response is simple: “to keep growing”, in particular by setting up more demonstration plots and expanding production to fifty quintales per hectare. “Our ultimate goal is for each plant to produce one kilo, which translates to 80 quintales per hectare”, he calculates.
Beyond the numbers, Eddie Abarca López embodies the best of rural leadership: the capacity to transform life in his community through collective work, innovation and respect for the land. From Jaén in northern Peru, this son of coffee farmers has converted his dream into a model organization that is inspiring the entire region.
In closing, Eddie reflects that, “When producers improve production, increase their price and change their lifestyle, it is a wonderful thing to witness. The reward is “seeing how coffee can transform the life of a family of coffee growers”.
The Gold Coffee organization that Eddie has been managing for six years provides training to farmers in soil management, organic fertilization, harvesting and post-harvesting.
More information:
Institutional Communication Division.
comunicacion.institucional@iica.int
