EL SALVADOR

The Republic of El Salvador is located on the Pacific coast. The country covers an area of 21,041 km² and has a population of 6.8 million.

A distinctive feature of this coffee-growing region is its coffee forests and the land surrounded by the Apaneca-Ilamapatec mountain ranges and the Sierra Madre de Chiapas. These conditions contributed to its protected designations of origin.

From an ecological and biodiversity perspective, coffee is vital to El Salvador, as it is the main contributor to maintaining soil cover and, unlike other crops, has replaced the original forest with a suitable tree-based system, made up of coffee plantations, shade trees, windbreaks, grasses, and more. For this reason, it is classified as a “Subtropical Moist Forest” under the Holdridge system. El Salvador’s soils are 90% volcanic. These soils tend to accumulate large amounts of organic matter, which greatly benefits coffee growth and cultivation.

The Apaneca mountain range is a volcanic range that lies in western El Salvador. It consists of volcanoes, including IIamatepec Volcano, one of the region’s most active. The Apanenca-Ilamatepec coffee-growing region has an estimated population of 1.26 million and covers an area of 4,289.95 km². The region has 37 coffee-growing districts, including Santa Ana, Ahuachapán, Juayúa, and Sonsonate. These districts are home to more than 9,740 families who cultivate over 70,881 hectares of coffee of the Arabica species, including the Pacas, Bourbon, Pacamara, Catimores, Casticis, Cuscatleco, and Catuaí varieties.

Apaneca – Ilamatepec ranks first among the country’s coffee-growing regions with 53% of the country’s total production.