Smooth Operator

The remote region of Chirripó, in the south of Costa Rica, was not historically known for quality coffee, but a group of visionary coffee producers were hell bent on changing that. They began planting quality focused coffee varietals and took an aritisinal approach to coffee production and now they are thriving!

They are located in an emerging region of Costa Rica called Chirripó. The coffee grows on the slopes of Costa Rica's highest mountain: Cerro Chirripó. Their group is called MICEPA and they are comprised of five families that, in 2010, decided to work together to process their coffee and sell it under the group's name. This has brought tremendous benefit to each of their families since they are now able to sell their coffee at profitable prices as opposed to selling fruit at a fraction of the price.

In fact, in Costa Rica in general, it was pretty normal in those days for coffee producers to simply sell their coffee cherry to the local cooperative. Then the cooperative would blend coffee cherries from many producers, process it and sell it under a regional brand. This was convenient for the coffee producer for a number of reasons. First, it allowed them to only focus on growing and harvesting. Second, it provided them with cash shortly after harvesting. And finally, they did not have to invest in much infrastructure to process and dry coffee. But this convenience came at a high cost - the difference between selling fruit and processing is the difference between scraping by and thriving - especially if the producer is hard working and attentive to details.

So, in 2010, the families from MICEPA invested in processing equimpent (de-pulper, de-mucilager, and drying beds) and began processing their own coffee and selling it under the group's name. Although this is considerably more work, the payoff has been tremendous and I have seen MICEPA grow and expand over the years thanks to the prices they fetched for their coffees, as well as their own discipline in re-investing some of the funds back into the farms and the processing infrastructure.

This quality-first, pragmatic approach will continue to propell MICEPA and its five families for years to come.