Growing up in the Amazon rainforests of Peru, Felix Marin lives and breathes coffee. In 1942 his father led extended family from the Andean highlands to set up a coffee plantation in the Forest of the Inca (los Bosques del Inca), believed to be the final rest place of the last Inca emperor. He then set up the first coffee cooperative in 1965 which later became La Florida, the third largest coffee cooperative in Peru. The family business became the cooperative Coopchebi in 2003, and after presiding over the growth of La Florida, Felix took over the helm of Coopchebi. Marin was in New Zealand recently to see the operation of its largest client IncaFé, and tell Kiwi’s a bit about the importance of the organic Fairtrade coffee business.
