Max Perez, is the founder & president of La Hermosa cooperative. He comes from a coffee producing family from Huehuetenango, Guatemala. As the son of a coffee farmer, Max saw his father deal with the frustrations of being a farmer in this industry. Initially he decided that he didn't want to have the same struggles, so he decided to move to Guatemala City and pursue a career as a lawyer. He and his wife Claudia, began their careers as lawyers, living in the daily rush of a big city like Guatemala City.
Shortly after receiving his law degree, however, he realized that coffee farming was in his blood. He convinced Claudia, to also leave her legal career, to buy some land in Acatenango, about 90 minutes from Antigua. Their goal was to grow excellent coffee while preserving the environment via organic farming practices. Having been born and raised in the coffee farm in Huehetenango, and having been involved with coffee all of his life, he set out to pursue his coffee dream of having his own coffee farm. In 2010 he purchased a farm in Acatenango, ideal for the production of high quality coffee. Max renovated the farm with high quality varieties such as typica, pache, geisha and pacamara and he carefully worked in the processes to produce a top quality coffee that has already earned Max several national and international coffee awards.
Shortly after they started, Max realized that he needed to help his neighbors so they could get better access to the market. In 2015 he organized La Hermosa cooperative. Max became the president of the co-op and his next step was to motivate all members to become organic certified to further differentiate their high quality coffee and so that they could leverage their volumes for export and work and grow together.
Now there are 52 members in La Hermosa cooperative--all organic certified and all getting paid much higher than market prices. Max’s young and entrepreneurial spirit moves him to continuously innovate in varieties, production and milling processes, such as double soak washed, honey and naturals. He states that, “the appreciation of organic, specialty coffee by the consumer motivates us to produce with a bigger passion and determination a high quality coffee.”
