The boutique road of Costa Rican coffee

Students learning to pull flowers in the coffee salon.

These two days, Xi Da and his wife visited Costa Rica and tasted coffee. Coffee is an important export product of Costa Rica. It earns a lot of foreign exchange for the country every year. It is vividly called "Golden Seed". Let's learn about Costa Rica's coffee boutique road!

At the Costa Rica COE Fine Coffee Competition in early May this year, two green beans from Elsa Coffee Estate won prizes. Those familiar with coffee know that COE is the most famous fine coffee competition in the world, and coffee beans can be sold at international online auctions at several times or even dozens of times higher than the price of ordinary green beans.

Elsa Coffee Estate is located in the western valley coffee producing area of Costa Rica. In May and June, the workers in the estate are not as busy as the coffee harvest season. Their work mainly focuses on the shelling and screening of green beans before export. In recent years, the estate began to take the development route of "boutique coffee", coffee beans have won many awards in the COE boutique coffee competition, and its coffee has enjoyed high international popularity.

Ricardo, owner of Elsa Estate, said that the estate has a coffee plantation covering an area of 16 hectares, equipped with coffee bean processing equipment, which can process coffee fruits produced by his own coffee plantation and coffee growers in surrounding areas. Because it is located at an altitude of 1700 meters, the quality and flavor of coffee beans are generally better than those grown in low-altitude areas, and the estate only harvests the most mature fruits during the coffee harvest period and carefully processes them, so most of the coffee beans can be rated as fine grade.

In Costa Rica, there are still many small but high-quality coffee estates like Elsa. Their philosophy is to continuously improve the quality of coffee beans and go out of their own "boutique coffee" road to obtain the best economic benefits.

Coffee is an important export product of Costa Rica, earning a large amount of foreign exchange for the country every year, and is figuratively called "Golden Seed". Costa Rica's unique natural conditions are ideal for growing high-quality coffee varieties, although the yield is small, but with excellent quality, Costa Rica coffee has always occupied an important position in the international fine coffee market.

Ge Zhengfu attaches great importance to the development of coffee industry. In addition to promulgating laws prohibiting the cultivation of coffee varieties with poor flavor, it has also set up a national coffee administration to promote high-quality coffee varieties, help coffee farmers improve coffee cultivation management techniques, and provide technical support for coffee bean quality identification. At the same time, some coffee gardens have opened up a distinctive "coffee culture tour" to promote the coffee industry through tourism.

In recent years, in order to better adapt to the needs of the international coffee market, some coffee growers have set their sights on the current pursuit of green and environmentally friendly life, and vigorously grow organic coffee. Although the manpower and capital investment is relatively large, once certified by the international organic coffee certification body, it can be sold at a higher price. In addition to organic certification, there are some world-renowned professional coffee certifications such as Rainforest Coffee Certification, Shade Coffee Certification, International Fair Trade Certification, etc., which provide channels for Costa Rica's fine coffee to expand into the international coffee market.

Costa Rica has a history of coffee cultivation for two hundred years, and the development of "fine coffee" is a new situation that has gradually emerged in the past decade. Costa Rica's coffee agriculture conforms to the trend of increasing demand for fine coffee in the international coffee market, actively adjusts its own development, and opens up a reputation in the international fine coffee market and occupies an important place.

China Coffee Trading Network: www.gafei.com