Danish restaurant group gets sustainable coffee farm in Mexico

In the future, a Mexican coffee farm will deliver sustainable coffee to Cofoco’s Danish restaurants. The project will also benefit the locals in the Mexican region of Teocelocity by delivering surplus power to the local school.

The Danish restaurant group Cofoco is establishing a sustainable coffee farm in Mexico. The first of its kind operated exclusively on solar panels. Since 2016, Cofoco has been looking for the right coffee to serve at their restaurants. They have apparently not found it, because now the restaurant group has established its own coffee farm in Mexico, which will supply coffee to their 11 restaurants in Copenhagen. The aim is to produce a high-quality coffee, which is also sustainable.

“Our basic idea is that we want to show that you can do it here and it is not necessarily expensive for the business to run it right. Maybe there is some extra work, but there is a huge number of positive effects from it”, says one of the owners of Cofoco, August Lund.

Clean solar energy

The coffee farm is located in the Mexican region of Teocelo, which is known for its handling of bio-waste. Here, the Mexican farmers must grow the coffee in shade because, according to Cofoco, sun-dried coffee has a negative effect on the ecosystem. In addition, 136 solar panels have been set up to supply electricity to the farm. The surplus electricity produced from the coffee farm is delivered to the local community.

The coffee farm becomes the first in the world to operate on solar energy, according to Cofoco

“It’s easier to set up a diesel generator in the mountains of Mexico than it is to make a solar installation. But this is cheaper, and at the same time, we can deliver surplus power to the local school and do something for the Mexican society”, says August Lund.

Source: FødevareWatch