Coffee Production in Costa Rica - Production

Production

Coffee production in the country relies on cheap, seasonal labor: Nicaraguan immigrants are often employed on plantations. Coffee cultivators in the country are paid very little, often as little as US$1.5 per basket picked, but the wages are not less than in many other industries of the Costa Rican primary sectors. The berries are picked by the workers and are transported to processing plants to be washed and to remove the pulp around the beans. In Costa Rica the processing plants where this process is done are called beneficios but the effects of pulp removal may result in non-beneficial environmental effects (see below). The beans are then laid out to dry in the sun, then sorted according to size and shape. Although mechanical drying is gradually replacing manual labor in places, time consuming sun drying, and equipment are required to dry the wet seeds after pulping. Then they are then sealed with a slight touch of acidity typical of Costa Rican coffee.

TarrazĂș is thought to produce the most desirable coffee beans in Costa Rica, and they are among the finest Arabica coffee beans in the world used for making espresso coffee, together with Jamaican Blue Mountain, Guatemalan Antigua and Ethiopian Sidamo. In November 2012, TarrazĂș Geisha coffee became the most expensive coffee sold by Starbucks, topping Jamaica's Blue Mountain from the first place. The coffee was sold only in 48 out of the 10,800 Starbucks stores in the United States, at a price of US$6 for the small cup and US$7 for the large cup, while the average price of a cup of coffee in the U.S. is US$1.38. Online customers were able to buy 226 grams (0.5 lb) packs at a price of US$40 each and it was sold out in less than 24 hours.

Costa Rica hosts an annual festival in honor of National Coffee Day. Welcoming farmers and the public, the Agriculture and Livestock Ministry and the Costa Rican Coffee Institute pay homage to the bean and the very important industry of coffee. Awarded is a Cup of Excellence for the highest quality of coffee produced in Costa Rica, with the winner being permitted to sell their winning coffee through an auction to the international community. This is not only prestigious but financially lucrative as various international countries out bid each other to purchase the finest caliber of coffee.

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