Visit to Del Cafe Tal

Today, Wednseday May 21st, we traveled to Del Cafe Tal. It is a local coffee plantation that just earlier this month won awards as being the best coffee and CR. The owner, Daisy, believed this meant the best in the world as well. On our visit, the owner and the coffee engineer had lots of information regarding how the coffee business works and the challenges that coffee producers face.


This particuler plantation was located at the highest point in which coffee can still be grown successfully. With the high altitude, there are benefits as well as things that make it harder to sustain a coffee business. Benefits include more humidity and moisture which is a definately beneficial right now since the rainy season should have already begun, but has been delayed for some reason. Something that is made more difficult by the altitude is the lack of sun, due to clouds, that this farm recieves. Since Del Cafe Tal dries the coffee beans in the sun, it takes additional time to dry their beans which ultimately makes them less efficient compared to other plantations.

The owner also expressed to us that the coffee industry has two main sectors, Organic and Non-Organic. Tomorrow, we visit Cafe Britt which is an Organic coffee plantation. Del Cafe Tal was bought by the owner that gave our presentation about 10 years ago. She originally wanted to be an orgainic farm, but changed to non-organic when after 3 years. According to her, there are many reasons why organic plantations are harder to make successful. The first seemed to be the difference in production. When her farm was organic at a size of 2 hectares, she was only producing 30 sacks of beans a year. When she switched over to non-organic, she increased her production to 800 sacks a year. The second problem she highlighted was that the increase in the amount an owner can charge for organic vs. non-orgainc coffee is not enough. She estimated that is was only a couple of dollars more per sack. These reasons make non-organic production much more attractive to owners who are really looking to make a profit.

The owner also identified problems with fraud in regards to Organic coffee. To be organic, a plantation`s soil must pass inspections for not having fertilizers and other things. The problem in today`s market is that some companies are marketing there coffee as organic when in reality, it is not. This has lead to the price offered to organic growers being driven down.

Del Cafe Tal was also very interesting because the owner realized the importance of having the ability to process her crops from seed to shelf. This meant that she planted, cared for, harvested, dried, roasted, ground, and sold to customers. Because she has made her farm capable of all these processes, she does not have to rely on anyone else in getting her product to market. This leads to better efficienty and in the long run, lower cost.

Other interesting facts I found by listening to the owner and engineer of Del Cafe Tal included, 7 full time employees and up to 70 during the harvest. Harvest season begins between December and January depending on how ready the bean and fruit are. The bean pickers are paid by how many bushels of beans they bring in and also the proportion of the color of the beans they bring in. The more red the better (as oposed to green). Degradation of the soil is one of the biggest problems that face all coffee growers. Overplanting and water drainage lead to this problem. Finally, because Del Cafe Tal is such a small Plantation, costs for fertilizer and other necesities for growing coffe were expensive. Realizing this, Del Cafe Tal has joined forces with other farms in her area to decrease costs by buying in "bulk".

Interestingly, when Daisy`s plantation won the award as best quality coffee, she almost immediately found she could charge an increased price for her product. She went from charging $1.50 per pound to $15 per pound. She is looking to use this award as a marketing ploy to get her coffee into the top areas of the world (Europe, Japan, U.S.) at the top price she can recieve. The other positive that came out of winning the award was the increase in pride that Daisy had noticed in her workers. Daisy observed that since the coffee product her employees help produce was recognized and awarded, they are more proud of the jobs they do around the plantation and even do more than what they are paid for.

At the end of our visit, Del Cafe Tal provided free coffee. Although it was not brewed from the award winning beans, I do not think it could be much different. I am usually not one to enjoy coffee, but the aroma and taste of Daisy`s coffee was really amazing. I bought 3 lbs. at $10 dollar a pound to bring home to family and friends. I hope they will enjoy it as much as I did.

A post concerning the Coffee industry as a whole is on its way!!