Peru struggles to improve coffee quality

Reuters

By Robin Emmott

LIMA, Peru, May 18 (Reuters) - In the morning mist, Peruvian farmers come down from the mountains on horseback to sell their coffee beans to local intermediary buyers, willing to take whatever price they are offered.

Without the resources to process and export their crop, many farmers hand over their arabica beans -- coffee that has the potential to be sold as a gourmet food in the United States -- to middlemen in this Altomayo Valley town who combine the produce with other local coffees and sell it on to Lima-based exporters for a profit.

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