Coffee

Coffee Rack at Chico Natural Foods

Compare with the price of bananas! Coffee is an export crop that is important to the economies of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Specialty coffee has greater economic value than a coffee brand such as Folgers.

Coffee Rack at Chico Natural Foods. You will read about Fair Trade in one of this week’s articles.Terms like “organic,” “shade grown,” and “fair trade” can incresase the price that growers receive for their coffee.? ? ?

Soconusco

Early coffee fincas, farms, were established in the highlands of Central America’s Soconusco coast. This region’s colonial exports were two natural dye products, cochineal and indigo.

Caption

The arrival of foreign coffee growers in the 1870s created a new export economy in this region.

Cochineal

The white secretions are insect nests which provide the red dye.

Buckingham Palace Guards’ coats were dyed with cochineal until the 20th century.

http://www.illustratedgarden.org/mobot/rarebooks/

Indigofera suffruticosa

Anil de pasto

Indigo

Demand for cochineal and indigo collapsed in the late 1850s when Europeans developed the processes for producing synthetic dyes.

“Mauve”

Coffee finca owned by descendants of German growers, 1875.

So, at the same time that foreign-owned fruit companies were bringing export agriculture to the coastal lowlands, foreign family farmers were bringing export agriculture to the highlands.

The same finca in 2005

This slide demonstrates why coffee initially was valued as an ornamental plant. Jesuits introduced into Central America as a fragrant plant for their courtyards. Not as a potential agricultural export.

You’ve seen this one already. What does it mean for coffee? This road cut shows layers of volcanic ash which provide fertile soils for coffee farms. The vulcanism resulted from subduction, which also created the mountainous topography. Successful coffee production is only possible in environments that do experience cold and hot temperatures. Tropical highlands provide the best environment for the plant. Central America has tropical highlands because of subduction and vulcanism.

Some Central American countries are developing specialized coffee growing regions which have distinctive tastes, similar to wine appelations n France and California.

Germans were vital to the establishment of the commercial coffee economy. Here’s one of the early pioneers, Adolfo Boppel.

German coffee grower’s house in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.

Some coffee growers have diversified production to include ornamental plants which they grow in the coffee region and at higher elevations. They deforest portions of hillsides and drape them with shade cloth.

Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.

Seed

Coffee process. Seed saved from harvest (November-February).

Yep. The harvest is during verano, the dry season (Dec-Feb).

Why is labor for the coffee harvest not a problem?

Finca "Las Nubes", San Francisco Zapotitlán, Suchitepéquez, Guatemala

El Soldadito

Coffee process.

Seedlings

Coffee process.

Grafting to good roots.

Coffee process.

Seed bed:

Fertilized with coffee pulp

Coffee process.

Ready to be planted by June.

Shade?

Shade?

This finca is marketed as shade-grown coffee, but you get sunburn in this area.

Flower in March

Coffee process.

Fruit ~8 months later

Similar to sugar cane plantations, almost all steps of processing take place on the finca.

Coffee process.

De-pulp

Coffee process. Wash and ferment

Coffee process. Patio drying. In Nicaragua, growers have begun to use tarps as drying platforms rather than concrete patios.

Coffee process. Drier

Guardiola driers. Invented in Guatemala.

Solar drying. This grower thinks that a demand for solar dried coffee is growing. This will be yet another specialty that might increase the value of his coffee.

Coffee process.

Hulling and sorting

Coffee process.

Bagging

Coffee process.

Marketing

Marketing

History. Some specialty coffee brands highlight the history of their farms.

Marketing

Environmentalism. Some growerss emphasize the habitat that their farms provide to migratory birds.

Marketing

A company like Starbucks sells specialty coffee. They send inspectors to their suppliers to check the conditions of the finca and laborers.

Marketing

Some fincas have become tourist destinations where visitors can birdwatch and taste great coffee.

Explain this photo.

A coffee finca’s private airstrip. They have had to place sandbags on the runway to prevent drug traffickers from landing.

Large fincas are similar to plantations in that they house a large portion of their workers. The population of this finca town surges during the harvest when migrant laborers arrive to harvest. Many of the migrants are indigenous residents of the highlands. The harvest occurs during verano, the slowest months in the agricultural cycle.

This finca-town has relatively pleasant worker housing. The owner received a favorable “workplace conditions” award from Starbucks for his efforts.

Finca-town store. They sell cheap instant coffee, not the coffee produced on the finca.