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5 years ago, Nestor Lasso and his brother Adrian took over the family farm and started producing specialty coffee varieties and experimenting, not just growing like their parents. Today, at the ages of 22 and 24, the two brothers teamed up with Joan Vervaga, also the son of a coffee farmer, to create El Diviso Farm. ‎
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It is located near the city of Pitalito, in the region of Huila, Colombia. The desire to improve the quality of coffee led them to create a partnership. NESTOR'S COMMENT: “I grew up in a verida (locality, Ed. Ed.) called Normandy, not far from the town of Pitalito in the south of the Uila region. I grew up on a farm and for as long as I can remember, the region has always been a coffee area. I had a very healthy childhood here, everyone knows each other and it is safe here. I remember my childhood playing games in nature, playing hide and seek, and the fact that I was always very happy here. ‎
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Usually, being a coffee producer is a low-paying and not very attractive job. The only thing that saves producers from starvation is the fruits and vegetables grown on the farm. As for material goods, we have access only to what is absolutely necessary. Therefore, many young people go to the city to find office or less physically demanding work, because in their opinion, coffee is not worth the effort. I really got into specialty coffee when I realized that in addition to making a decent profit, I could also grow in the coffee industry, because I've always had a strong passion for it. It has public funding and today this program is recognized as the best coffee growing school in Latin America, it is called SENA. ‎
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We learned a lot at SENA. All the theoretical foundations, the science of coffee processing... everything is taught there. But the reality of the work of a coffee producer is learned in the field. Currently, the price of coffee is very high, so many producers want to know how we work. We easily "recognize people who are really motivated to produce specialty coffee, those who came to learn from us, and those who only see a temporary opportunity to make money. What really matters is the passion the producer has for the coffee. ‎
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If you don't have a natural passion, you will never succeed! Often some coffee producers here have a lot of money because they have a lot of land and the best machines. But specialty coffee does not interest them, they do not see the point in changes, because they are not as passionate about coffee as we are. I saw that the consumption of specialty coffee in the country has changed a lot in recent years. Until recently, Colombians drank coffee by-products, that is, everything that could not be exported. ‎
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But people here realized that coffee is a much nobler product than it seems. Today, many producers save part of their harvest to roast it themselves and drink it at home. All this passion for specialty coffee led to the fact that people looked at coffee from a different angle."