Andres Castro travels in Costa Rica
August 27, 2007
It was a sunny day when we headed up
North from San José to the Alajuela region. Distances in Costa Rica
are generally shorter which is a great advantage if anyone needs to move
within different places in just one day. We started our tour visiting
Santa Eduviges farm, which was the place where the Vargas family starts
its coffee plantation four generations ago. Mr. Recaredo Vargas start to
grow coffee in the late 1800`s followed by Mr. Clarindo, Mr. Norman and
currently, Mr. Rodrigo Vargas, among other members of his family. I
believe Mr. Recaredo would be happy to know that his dream kept and has
now become a model business for raw coffee in Costa Rica.
Picture 1. Mr. Rodrigo Vargas in Santa Eduviges Farm.
Mr. Rodrigo Vargas is the administrative manager of Beneficiadora Santa Eduviges; he also is part of the board of directors of Santa Eduviges group. In addition, I also had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Arnoldo Leiva, who is the chief director of Coffee Source and president of the Specialty Coffee of Costa Rica.
Later in the day, Mr. Vargas introduce me his concept of integrated business based on production levels, environmental issues, good agronomical practices and post-harvest process working together perfectly to produce the best possible cup of coffee. The farm is also engage in varietals research and environmental conservation practices. It was amazing to travel through the farm by car using private roads, which is not feasible in Colombia and many other producer countries due to the smaller size of the farms.
One of the big surprises is the post-harvest process that takes place on this farm. The cherries, once harvested, do not leave the farm property until they reach its green bean stage or ¨Café Oro¨ (coffee gold), which is the stage right before the bean is ready to be roasted. This was the first time that I saw in one building the wet and dry processes working in synchronization in a production line process. In Colombia, it is not typical to find such a huge facility working in line. But setting their facility up in this way lets them control the process from the tree all the way through to the green stage, ensuring a stable, high quality product. In addition, renewable sources of energy such as husk, organic material fragments coming from stem prunes, and methane gases are used to heat the mechanical parchment dryers. By-products are reused in different processes whenever possible. The methane gases, for example, come from a water purification procedure used in the wet process. This shows the farm’s commitment to minimizing the external use of energy like electricity and natural gas, and establishing a more sustainable and clean wet and dry process.
After visiting the first farm, we headed to Doka Estate (www.dokaestate.com) farm located about 15 km. from the first one. This is an excellent example of how a coffee farm can take advantage of its assets in order to establish a better business model and to get the highest possible margin from the entire value chain. Doka Estate farm is not only committed to producing a good green bean coffee (gold coffee) but also providing a first-hand experience to learn how coffee production works.
Picture 2.
Mr. Leiva showing mechanical control in Doka wet process.
There is an additional feature to explore in the wet process at this farm – the process features a waterfall that converts hydraulic power into mechanical power, using very efficiently the available renewable energy.
Finally, we reached La Hilda Estate, another amazing coffee farm. We (Portland Roasting) carry coffee from this particular farm because we not only believe it produces coffee of excellent quality but also because of their unique approach to producing in a more sustainable way. La Hilda is an example of business that we strive to support. Traveling within this farm, we witnessed its dedication to positive social, environmental and economical practices. As a result, benefits reach not only stakeholders but also the fix workers, seasonal workers (up to 4500 could be hired during a normal harvest season), the local community and the environment. Fix workers, usually around 80 people in total, have housing provided for them and their families. Rain Forest Alliance also certifies this farm, which demonstrates an additional commitment with good agricultural practices. This particular farm also provides additional facilities such as a community hall, church and Primary school for seventy kids.
We are committed to supporting this farm’s practices through out our Farm Friendly Direct program by providing a teacher and computers to their school. The school’s principals are Ms. Delsi Elizondo and Ms. Maria Isabel, and they usually spend some of their time as the computer lab teachers. They told us about how these computers are helping a lot in classes such as Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, IAFA program and Geography. We had the opportunity to watch some of the projects that students had already worked on; it was great to see the young kids using the computers to share new information as well as making presentations for their schoolmates and teachers.
These computers help with the learning process. Especially with specific topics such as drugs addiction prevention, Spanish grammar, Costa Rica geography, and others. I will attach some works made by kids from 9 to 11 years old (See attached slides). During this meeting the principal gave us more suggestions about how could we move ahead providing additional support to this project in the near future. The next step is to supply enough computers in order to have just two students using one computer per session as well as helping them to pay a monthly fee to have access to Internet service. We believe we could continue providing this support with your help.
Picture 3: La Hilda Students Performing Agricultural practices.
Picture 4: Computer Lab. Portland Roasting helps to equip and sustain this facility
Picture 5 : La Hilda Estate. Housing for permanent worker.
Pictures 6: La Hilda School - Drugs prevention program. Presentation made by students in the computer lab.
Picture 1. Mr. Rodrigo Vargas in Santa Eduviges Farm.
Mr. Rodrigo Vargas is the administrative manager of Beneficiadora Santa Eduviges; he also is part of the board of directors of Santa Eduviges group. In addition, I also had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Arnoldo Leiva, who is the chief director of Coffee Source and president of the Specialty Coffee of Costa Rica.
Later in the day, Mr. Vargas introduce me his concept of integrated business based on production levels, environmental issues, good agronomical practices and post-harvest process working together perfectly to produce the best possible cup of coffee. The farm is also engage in varietals research and environmental conservation practices. It was amazing to travel through the farm by car using private roads, which is not feasible in Colombia and many other producer countries due to the smaller size of the farms.
One of the big surprises is the post-harvest process that takes place on this farm. The cherries, once harvested, do not leave the farm property until they reach its green bean stage or ¨Café Oro¨ (coffee gold), which is the stage right before the bean is ready to be roasted. This was the first time that I saw in one building the wet and dry processes working in synchronization in a production line process. In Colombia, it is not typical to find such a huge facility working in line. But setting their facility up in this way lets them control the process from the tree all the way through to the green stage, ensuring a stable, high quality product. In addition, renewable sources of energy such as husk, organic material fragments coming from stem prunes, and methane gases are used to heat the mechanical parchment dryers. By-products are reused in different processes whenever possible. The methane gases, for example, come from a water purification procedure used in the wet process. This shows the farm’s commitment to minimizing the external use of energy like electricity and natural gas, and establishing a more sustainable and clean wet and dry process.
After visiting the first farm, we headed to Doka Estate (www.dokaestate.com) farm located about 15 km. from the first one. This is an excellent example of how a coffee farm can take advantage of its assets in order to establish a better business model and to get the highest possible margin from the entire value chain. Doka Estate farm is not only committed to producing a good green bean coffee (gold coffee) but also providing a first-hand experience to learn how coffee production works.
Picture 2.
Mr. Leiva showing mechanical control in Doka wet process. There is an additional feature to explore in the wet process at this farm – the process features a waterfall that converts hydraulic power into mechanical power, using very efficiently the available renewable energy.
Finally, we reached La Hilda Estate, another amazing coffee farm. We (Portland Roasting) carry coffee from this particular farm because we not only believe it produces coffee of excellent quality but also because of their unique approach to producing in a more sustainable way. La Hilda is an example of business that we strive to support. Traveling within this farm, we witnessed its dedication to positive social, environmental and economical practices. As a result, benefits reach not only stakeholders but also the fix workers, seasonal workers (up to 4500 could be hired during a normal harvest season), the local community and the environment. Fix workers, usually around 80 people in total, have housing provided for them and their families. Rain Forest Alliance also certifies this farm, which demonstrates an additional commitment with good agricultural practices. This particular farm also provides additional facilities such as a community hall, church and Primary school for seventy kids.
We are committed to supporting this farm’s practices through out our Farm Friendly Direct program by providing a teacher and computers to their school. The school’s principals are Ms. Delsi Elizondo and Ms. Maria Isabel, and they usually spend some of their time as the computer lab teachers. They told us about how these computers are helping a lot in classes such as Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, IAFA program and Geography. We had the opportunity to watch some of the projects that students had already worked on; it was great to see the young kids using the computers to share new information as well as making presentations for their schoolmates and teachers.
These computers help with the learning process. Especially with specific topics such as drugs addiction prevention, Spanish grammar, Costa Rica geography, and others. I will attach some works made by kids from 9 to 11 years old (See attached slides). During this meeting the principal gave us more suggestions about how could we move ahead providing additional support to this project in the near future. The next step is to supply enough computers in order to have just two students using one computer per session as well as helping them to pay a monthly fee to have access to Internet service. We believe we could continue providing this support with your help.
Picture 3: La Hilda Students Performing Agricultural practices.
Picture 4: Computer Lab. Portland Roasting helps to equip and sustain this facility
Picture 5 : La Hilda Estate. Housing for permanent worker.
Pictures 6: La Hilda School - Drugs prevention program. Presentation made by students in the computer lab.
