Pandemic can’t stop dedicated farmers at Argueta’s Coffee

In 2015, Abner Argueta founded Argueta’s Coffee, a business based in Freeville, New York, that brings beans from Guatemala to upstate New York. In the six years since, Argueta has made a name for himself, selling his coffee at local stores like GreenStar and the Lansing Market and farmers markets like CNY Regional Market in Syracuse.

While the pandemic has rocked the county’s business sector, Argueta has weathered every challenge, and he doesn’t plan to stop any time soon.

According to his website, the Argueta family has been growing coffee in Guatemala for four generations.

“When I got home from school, I would help my dad with the farm,” Abner says on his website. “On the weekends, from the age of about 10,

I learned how to hoe and till the soil. We pruned with a small saw and cleared weeds with a machete. I’d help de-pulp, harvest, wash and dry the coffee — everything related to running a coffee farm.”

Nowadays, Argueta roasts small batches of coffee himself from his converted living room. His cousin, Manrique Lopez, sources the beans from farmers the family has known for generations and ships them to Ithaca.

“My cousin is the guy on the ground,” Argueta told Tompkins Weekly. “He’s the guy that has a small lab in Guatemala where he will cut the coffee and make sure that the quality of the coffee is what we want.”

When the pandemic first hit the county, Argueta’s saw a temporary boost in business, as people stuck inside bought his coffee instead of going out. But once the pandemic really set in, and everything started shutting down, that growth slowed.

“Everybody got shy,” Argueta said. “Any cafe or anybody [else], they shut down, so they’re not trying to sell [my coffee] because they can’t even sell anything. So, I think I remained a little stagnant in a way. I think my company has gone in a straight line instead of going up. So, it’s not growing as fast as it was growing before.”

Even though the pandemic has stalled growth, Argueta said he knows he’s in a better position than many other local business owners who are struggling right now, as he has far fewer expenses.

“The good thing about my business is that I don’t have a huge overhead. My overhead is actually my product — buying the beans in Guatemala,” he said. “I don’t have employees. I’m the only employee, so if I can’t pay myself, I won’t pay myself. … Because I don’t have a café, I don’t have to be open. I just get the orders, pull them up and deliver.”

Further cutting down on costs is Argueta’s equipment. He only uses a small air roaster machine, which is rather inexpensive compared to drum roasters often used by larger coffee operations. In addition, Argueta cuts out the middlemen other producers typically use to get coffee from outside the U.S. by traveling to Guatemala himself or having his cousin ship it.

Though the pandemic didn’t significantly hurt Argueta’s business, it did impact those regular trips to Guatemala — Argueta has to quarantine every time he returns to New York, delaying deliveries of coffee. Thankfully, he said, customers are OK waiting.

“I have a lot of repeat customers. They enjoy the quality of coffee that I have and the work that we do,” he said. “They like the fact that I work directly with the farmers, that I know the guy that is actually producing the coffee, … that we’re doing things very, very, very, very different than everyone else.”

And Argueta has learned how to adjust his practices to pandemic health guidelines, like offering contactless delivery for customers, which has helped to bring his customers peace of mind.

While Argueta prides himself on doing things differently — a small operation based on a long family history — he recognizes that Tompkins County is filled with so many great businesses, including his competitors, and he’s happy to be a part of that landscape.

“We try to make our product good and take pride in what we do,” Argueta said. “I think everybody brings something to the table, and … [it] brings variety to our community, that they can choose from all of us what they want. And I think that’s the bottom line, and we’re all trying to survive.”

Moving forward, Argueta said he plans to continue serving his community, no matter what the pandemic throws his way, and growing his business. For more information about Argueta and Argueta’s Coffee, visit https://arguetas-coffee.square.site or facebook.com/ArguetasCoffee.

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Comprehensive Plan comment period extended

The town of Dryden has extended the comment deadline for its Comprehensive Plan update to March 3. Visit the project website at Dryden2045.org to comment on the draft goals and strategies. In addition to providing input, you can also download public workshop materials, view recordings of recent workshops and sign up to receive updates.