Sololá is an important coffee growing region around 140km west of Guatemala City. Over 90% of the coffee farmers are of Mayan descent. Coffee plays an important role in the region – it is cultivated in diversified systems, intercropped with corn and beans to cover subsistence food needs.

The region provides ideal natural conditions for the cultivation of coffee of an outstanding quality. And yet, as much passion as the coffee farmers bring into their fields, the majority of them has neither experience, technical know-how nor the necessary infrastructure to produce coffee of a consistently high quality. To improve the quality of the cultivated and processed coffee, to increase productivity and to better evaluate production costs, the coffee farmers in the project area receive technical training. To ensure an advance of the sector as a whole, ICP cooperates with local authorities and strategic partners.