Daisy Rodriguez- Del Cafe...Tal

Today, May 21, 2008, we traveled to Daisy Rodriguez´s coffee plantation to learn how a small owned plantation is run, and what it takes to also maintain the planation. She started her interest in owning her own coffee plantation ten years ago, and since then has been both an organic and traditional coffee producer. She changed from being an organic coffee producer three years ago because she went from producing 800 baskets to 30 baskets a year. Now she has the number one coffee in Costa Rica, and they would have it that they are the best in the world. The plantation is located in the Alajuela province, where 1.2 million of the population lives. Daisy gave us some background information about coffee, and said that about 30 years ago a coffee producer would receive 30% of the value. Daisy has her own brand which is Del Cafe...Tal. She sells to Japan, Europe, and the United States. Her company is vertically intergated, doing all of the planting, picking, drying, shipping, selling, and etc. She also employees six people year around, and during the picking season she employees 70 people. The process after the coffee bean has been picked takes 7-8 days. She now produces around 80,000 pounds of coffee a year, and since she just receive the award of having the number one coffee in Costa Rica she can sell 100 pounds for 1500 dollars.