El Salvador is one of the three Barefoot focus countries. These are countries where we have visited the farms, broken bread with the farmers and have long standing relationships. They produce exceptional coffees with widely varying flavors based on terroir and varietal. We have multiple farms and coffees from this wonderful country.
El Salvador is the smallest country of Central America, with a total population of 5.7 millions inhabitants. The country’s main resource is its people, which characterize themselves by their genuine smile, their hospitality, and their reputation for being loyal hard working people, qualities that have been worthy of worldwide recognition.
These qualities reflect themselves in high levels of productivity and an important bilingual population. The total number of occupied individuals is 2,520,060. Their distribution by type of employment is 29% in the commerce sector, 20% in the service sector, and 18% in the manufacturing sector; the rest engage in the other sectors of the economy. 
The abundant labor pool — and the country’s young demographic profile that will add to it for years to come — is one of El Salvador’s chief competitive advantages, as well as its proximity to the major Latin American and United States markets.
Besides its magical coffee culture, El Salvador invites you to enjoy its cities, nature, beaches, Mayan heritage, nightlife and landscapes to discover the tastes of its traditional foods and to know its culture and traditions. It offers modern hotel infrastructures, advanced technology, warm climate, and a geographical excellent position.
Geography
- Location: With an area of 21.040 square km, El Salvador is located in the center of the Americas, bordering with Guatemala to the west, Honduras to the north, Nicaragua to the east, and partially divided by the Fonseca Gulf and the Pacific Ocean to the south.
- Geographic coordinates:
13º 50’ N - 88º 55’ W
- Terrain:
Mostly mountains narrow coastal belt and central plateau
- Maritime claims:
Territorial sea: 200 NM
- Elevation extremes:
Lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0m
Highest point: Cerro El Pital 2,730m
French colonizers planted the first coffee farms in America during the Luis XIV period, sending the product from the nurseries in Paris to the French Guyana, Haiti, and Santo Domingo. Historians claim that the product was transferred from the Caribbean to El Salvador in 1740.
During this period, Salvadoran coffee production grew noticeably from 1860 and thereafter, covering large extensions of land in the high grounds of El Salvador. Technical, economic, and political factors directly intervened in this expansion process.
The first 693 bags of coffee were shipped in 1856 to Europe, our main coffee market until World War II, when the USA became the main destination. In the 70´s, El Salvador ranked as the fourth coffee export country, harvesting a record of 3.5 million coffee bags.
El Salvador is recognized a keeper of heirloom varietals, with 68% of its coffee area grown to Bourbon. The excellence of our coffee lies in the personalized manner in which this is treated. Produced mainly by small and medium size growers who still follow distinctive traditions and farm practices, making it an artisan skill, that have been acquired from past generations. This along with the warm pacific weather and accessible roads that allows the coffee to be de-pulped immediately and sun dried in clay patios, a procedure that improves flavor according to experts.
As the birthplace of the famous Pacamara varietal known for its floral qualities, while keeping a fascinating and wild character, El Salvador is enjoying a resurgent love affair as her coffees are rediscovered.
In El Salvador, virtually all coffee is shade grown and comprises 75% of the total forested area, being the main barrier against deforestation, the drying of aquifers and also serving as refuge for hundreds of species of animals and trees.
In our country, besides being an economic option that yields social benefits, coffee is now our main ally in the fight against environmental deterioration. If coffee allowed thousands of families to live before, now, it can guarantee the lives of several future generations, since it provides invaluable ecological benefits.
Enjoy the bounty of coffee love that flows out of El Salvador like fresh clean water from the mountains.
For more information on coffee in El Salvador http://www.elsalvadorcoe.com/home.asp
