Our family´s relationship with coffee is deeply rooted, starting with Emil Gustav Sterkel, who, in search of opportunity migrated from southern Germany to Guatemala and purchased a coffee farm in the Polochic River valley, by the name La Esperanza. He imparted the love and dedication to coffee production acquired over many years and experiences working the land to his son, Emil, who took over the farm when his father retired.

Forced to abandon the farm during the second World War, and traveled back to Germany, Emil later returned to Guatemala to rebuild his life and this time, instead of coffee production, he founded a green coffee exporting company by the name Casa Agricola Mercantil y Exportación de Café, better known as CAMEC.

Driven by the values of precision and honesty deeply rooted in German culture, CAMEC quickly established itself as a reliable exporter, delivering consistent quality coffee to and providing exceptional service to coffee producers.

After 15 years of trading “parchment coffee” and processing it to green for export, Emil decided to expand CAMEC´s purchasing base by renting a coffee processing wet mill just outside of Antigua Guatemala, giving him access to many producers in the area; he named the mill La Esperanza in honor of the family´s lost farm.

After Emil´s death in 1975, his son Jens, continued to grow the business making CAMEC one of the most important coffee exporting firms in the country. He built a brand new Beneficio La Esperanza 500 meters away from the original, cementing the relationships that had been built over the years and allowing CAMEC to give an even better service to the producers while producing a superior quality to offer importers and roasters around the world.

The coffee industry has evolved greatly in the more than 70 years the  family has been exporting coffee, so to continue to grow with it, the exporting business was restructured and migrated into Beneficio La Esperanza as a processor and coffee exporter. Maintaining all the values and knowledge that have accompanied CAMEC, La Esperanza has focused even more on the producers, helping them get the best out of their crops and showcasing their individual production.

With the growing number of specialty coffee roasters across the world, the latest step in the family´s participation in the coffee industry involves importing green coffee. Reducing the separation between coffee producers and consumers will enable La Esperanza to properly transmit to the consumer the amount of people and work needed to make a cup of coffee a reality, and bring awareness to the value of the coffee production chain, and as a result provide more economic stability to the producers.