Coffe+in+Costa+Rica

__ **Coffe In Costa Rica** __

__Logan Donielson__
__ **1. Introduction** __

Coffee production, processing and exportation is the third largest sector of agriculture in Costa Rica. Costa Rica is famed for extremely fertile soil as well as heavy rainfall and warm temperatures. These environmental factors create the perfect environment for coffee production and processing. With coffee being Costa Rica's number 3 agricultural product, and the agriculture industry employing 28% of the population and accounting for 20% of Costa Ricas' gross national product, the coffee industry has a massive influence on Costa Rica's economic success. Due to its high quality and caffeine content, Costa Rican coffee has been internationally recognized as some of the best quality coffee in the world

__**2. History**__

Coffee was first brought from Europe to Costa Rica sometime during the late 18th century. Production of coffee first began in the Meseta Central region of Costa Rica. The Meseta Central is characterized by a temperate climate with medium elevation, dependable precipitation, and an average temperature of 75 degrees Fahrenheit. This created an ultra-fertile environment, perfect for cultivating a new cash crop. By 1829, coffee was quickly becoming Costa Rica's most valuable crop, beating sugar, tobacco, and cacao, three of the most valuable crops at the time. By the 1840s, Costa Rica was exporting huge amounts of coffee to countries such as Panama and Great Britain, with Britain being the largest importer of Costa Rican coffee for the next 100 years. Costa Rican coffee had an export tax placed on it that lasted from 1955 to 1994. The export tax was lifted due to a massive drop in market price in the late 1980s which nearly destroyed the world coffee trade.

__**3. Production**__

A large amount of Costa Rican coffee is still grown in the Meseta Central region due to its temperate climate and extremely fertile volcanic soil. The two main methods of cultivating coffee is sun cultivation, and shade growing. Shade growing is the oldest and most sustainable method of growing coffee and is generally practiced with older blends of coffee such as //Arabica//. Shade grown coffee is generally trimmed less and is allowed to grow naturally under the natural canopy of shady trees found throughout Costa Rica. Because no deforestation or excessive fertilization is needed for shade grown coffee, it does not destroy any native wildlife habitats and is the most environmental friendly method of coffee cultivation. Sun grown coffee, however, is grown in full sun or under heavily trimmed, non-native shade trees such as the Poró tree. This method of cultivation creates a much higher yield in a much shorter time. While sun grown is known to create a somewhat inferior quality bean, many coffee growers in Costa Rica feel pressured to sacrifice quality for yield and speed due to pressure from international buyers such as the Starbucks Corporation. Because sun grown plants grow much larger much more quickly than shade grown plants, sun plantations require artificial fertilization and watering, increasing the rate of soil erosion, destroying native wildlife habitats, and degradation of naturally fertile soil
 * A. Cultivation**

A large amount of the work and money available in the coffee industry in Costa Rica is related to the harvesting and processing stage. When the beans are ripe, or starting the ripening process, they are harvested one of two ways. Strip harvesting is the process of harvesting all the beans at once, by machine or hand, regardless of ripeness. Strip harvesting is generally practiced on larger plantations and is associated with lower quality coffee due to the use of unripened beans. Selective harvesting is much more labor intensive. Selective harvesting is done all by hand and is practiced by rotating teams of harvesters picking only the ripest beans every 8-10 days. This method is more traditional, ensures the best possible product, and is associated with higher quality, more expensive coffee. After the harvest, the beans are processed using either a wet or dry method. Wet processing is much quicker that dry processing with beans being ready within 36 hours. Wet processing is done with large bean-washing machines which rinse, separate, and de-pulp the beans. While wet processing is much quicker and arguably more thorough, it uses massive amounts of water and chemicals which creates a huge amount of waste product which is eventually leaked back into the soil, hurting the environment. Dry processing is the oldest, most natural, and most environmentally friendly way to process coffee beans. Dry processing is fairly simple; first, the beans are lightly washed, strained, and separated by hand. The beans are then spread out onto large stone patios in direct sunlight and are left to naturally dry while being spread and mixed to ensure even drying. Dry processing of beans is the method used in high quality, expensive coffee due to time and labor required.
 * B. Processing**

__**4. Benefits and Controversy of the Coffee Industry**__

Coffee, at one time out-competing tobacco, sugar, and cacao combined, is now Costa Rica's third largest export. With close to 100,000 tons of coffee produced in 2008/2009, Costa Rica exports its huge amounts of processed coffee to countries such as the Netherlands, China, Mexico, and the largest importer of Costa Rican goods, the United States. In 2007/2008, the United States imported over 700,000 60kg bags of Costa Rican coffee, totaling to over 138.2 million USD of processed coffee. Furthermore, the coffee industry creates close to 100,000 jobs for Costa Ricans, lowering the unemployment and poverty rate.
 * A. Benefits of Coffee Production**

While coffee production accounts for a huge percent of Costa Rica's GDP and creates thousands of jobs, there is a fairly large controversy concerning the environmental effects of coffee production as well as the social and economic aspect of fair trade.
 * B. Controversy with Costa Rican coffee**

While it is true that coffee production and processing techniques such as sun cultivation and wet processing increase yield while decreasing time, they are also extremely harmful to the environment. According to a case study conducted by the TED Conferences Corp.: “Run-off kills river plants and fish; deforestation displaces birds.”[|1] Most of this “Run off” is the waste product from bean-washing machines as well as artificial fertilization. Also, because sun cultivation requires huge amounts of open, unshaded land, massive amounts of deforestation occurs, destroying natural rainforests, one of the largest sources of oxygen on the planet. Furthermore, hundreds of species of rare and endangered birds, plants, and other animals have their only natural habitat destroyed when deforestation occurs. This disrupts the entire ecosystem, and can cause extinction of entire species of animals.
 * 1. Environmental**

Because most Costa Rican coffee plantations are only a few acres each, coffee growers in Costa Rica are usually only able to produce a small harvest each year. This is an issue due to the fact that there is such a high demand worldwide for high quality coffee. Corporations like Starbucks essentially force growers to lower their prices because Starbucks is such a large buyer. Coffee growers are bullied into lowering their prices for large buyers and risk not being able to sell their product and going out of business. While the Costa Rican government recognizes this problem, and has enacted many, strict, fair trade laws controlling the minimum price per bag, there is still a huge amount of corruption involved in the exportation of processed coffee. Due to the great pressure to increase yield and speed, many growers have been pressured into using environmentally harmful growing techniques just to stay in business.
 * 2. Social and Economic Controversy**

[|Interview with a native Cosa Rican]

**Works Cited**

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7. [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_production_in_Costa_Rica#cite_note-ted-1]

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13. [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_processing#Picking]