Zamora Chinchipe

Zamora Chinchipe breaks the rule that Amazonian coffee is robusta. In Ecuador’s far south-east, where a branch of the Andes and the Cordillera del Cóndor fold the rainforest into mountains, smallholders grow arabica under shade at around 1,200 metres. Little known even in Ecuador, the province’s coffee is sweet and chocolatey, and its growers pioneered deforestation-free exports.

The short version

• High-grown Amazonian arabica, at about 1,200 metres on average.
• Sweet, chocolatey and creamy, with citrus acidity.
• Palanda and Chinchipe have the best yields.
• Shade-grown, with plantain, cassava and fruit trees.
• Ecuador’s first deforestation-free coffee export, in 2022.
• 222 tonnes in 2024, by INEC’s survey.

What does Zamora Chinchipe coffee taste like?

Sweet and balanced. Perfect Daily Grind Español describes notes of chocolate, caramel, honey and panela, a citrus acidity of medium-high intensity and a creamy body. Scores run from about 80 points and have passed 88. Traditional varieties are Criollo, Caturra, Sarchimor and Catucai, but some farmers are planting Geisha, Sidra and Typica Mejorado, and yellow and red honey processing is producing new profiles, says Vinicio Martínez of Finca La Victoria in Chinchipe.

Where and how it grows

The province averages about 1,200 metres, with temperatures of 18–30 °C and humidity above 60%. It has two clear seasons: a dry season from May to September and a rainy season from October to April, with more than 1,200 mm of rain a year. The rain means the trees rarely suffer drought, but drying coffee is hard, so associations have bought mechanical dryers. Coffee grows in agroforestry systems, under shade with plantain, cassava and fruit trees. Natural coffee mostly stays in local towns; washed coffee is exported, mainly to the United States and Europe, through associations, Perfect Daily Grind reports.

How much coffee does it grow?

Measure	Figure	Source
Area planted, 2024	1,228 ha	INEC
Area harvested, 2024	718 ha	INEC
Production, 2024	222 t (about 4% of Ecuador’s, by our calculation)	INEC
Production, 2018 (estimate)	About 1,500 t	MAGAP, via Perfect Daily Grind
Best yields	About 1 t a hectare, in Palanda and Chinchipe	MAGAP, via Perfect Daily Grind

The 2018 ministry estimate was calculated from planted area and average yields; INEC’s 2024 figure comes from its sample survey of farms, so the two are not directly comparable.

Deforestation-free coffee

In 2022 two associations, APECAP in Palanda and ACRIM near the Peruvian border in Chinchipe, made Ecuador’s first export of coffee produced sustainably and free of deforestation, through FAPECAFES, the federation of small organic coffee growers of the south, its president told Perfect Daily Grind. FAPECAFES now groups about 1,200 families in Zamora Chinchipe, Loja and El Oro and sells mainly to France (43%), Italy (25%) and Germany (22%), Expreso reported in 2026. That year its growers expected exports to fall from over 10,000 quintales to about 6,000 after heavy rain, and were worried about Xylella fastidiosa, detected in all three provinces. Many farmers still walk three hours or more to reach a road, and carry their coffee out by mule or horse.

Zamora Chinchipe and other Ecuadorian origins

• Coffee in Ecuador: the whole country, its arabica, robusta and soluble industry.
• Loja: the neighbouring province, Ecuador’s most decorated arabica.
• Coffee in Peru: across the border to the south.