I was born and raised in Guatemala City where I lived until 2014. I studied commercial engineering and worked for 7 year at the family company. I was not related with coffee until 2010 when I started having business meetings with coffee producers and exporters with the company I was working for at that time. I was in charge of commercializing moisture absorbents as packaging material to protect green coffee during shipments. These constant meetings with coffee people woke in me a huge interest in the coffee industry, and soon I was learning as much as I could. I always had a passion for agricultural products and business; in coffee I found the right combination of doing business and working among amazing people.
In 2013, I studied the “Master in Coffee Economics and Science” imparted by Illycafè, the University of Udine and the University of Trieste. For 7 months, I lived in Italy and had the opportunity to experience the Italian coffee culture. This experience changed my perception about the coffee world and I was certain that I wanted to work in the industry.
After finishing my Master degree, I returned to Guatemala for a couple of months until I got in contact with Café Imports. One day I logged into Twitter and I saw the open position to join the sourcing team; instantly I sent my CV. After a Skype meeting and an interview at the headquarters in Minneapolis, I got the job! In May 2014 I joined the Café Imports crew for my first trip to Africa. Now I form part of the sourcing team with the goal of acquiring the best coffees in the world.
I’m also known as “Lucho”, it’s a nickname for Luis.
You can follow me on Instagram here : luis_arochau