For Jose Leyva, marketing coffee beans is more than job

By DAI HUYNH
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

Feyley Leyva grows coffee on Pluma Mountain. Thickset and of medium height, he wears loose khaki pants, the same pair as yesterday, and a white, collared shirt under a gray button-down sweater.

His skin resembles soft parchment. On his smooth 85-year-old head is a straw hat, bleached white from the sun.

Hands in his pockets, he surveys the coffee crop and notices his grandson, José, standing near bushes planted three years ago. It will be another year before they produce enough cherries for a pound of coffee. And what will coffee be worth then? At the current international market price for unroasted parchment beans, the town's middleman -- the coyote -- would pay Leyva 38 cents a pound. It costs him twice that much to harvest.

More...