The End is Near :(...5/19/16 - 5/20/16

Pura Vida!!

This blog post comes as a bittersweet reminder that the end of this trip is very close. Today is our technical last day here, and then Saturday we'll be at the airport making our way back to our final destinations. So, in honor, this blog post tackles the very root cause for our study abroad experience in Costa Rica: the Coffee Market. 

Dried Green Coffee Beans

*Flash back* It's April and it's our last pre-departure meeting before coming to Costa Rica, everyone is pretty lowkey about their excitement but excitement is definitely there. We learned that we would be covering six bases of the coffee market in Costa Rica: Buying, Selling, Managing, Logistics, and Sustainabilty. In order to be thorough, the class was split into six groups and assigned these topics to focus in on. The Roast of Team 5 a.k.a. Team 5 a.k.a. definitely the coolest group was assigned Logisitics. 

*Flash forward* So it's been two weeks of studying the role Logistics plays in the coffee market here in Costa Rica, and I've not only gained a lot of insight into the coffee business, but I've also gained a whole new level of respect for both the people behind a cup of coffee and the coffee itself. 

If a Costa Rican company, say Cafe Britt wanted to sell their product to meet growing demand in the Pittsburgh area, five challenges that they would need to be prepared to tackle as it relates to Logistics include:

1.  Transportation of goods from Costa Rica to Pittsburgh to ensure that it is still kept fresh. Are intermediary companies used?
2.  The organization of all information, from imports to exports, to transportation routes. Are computer systems used and are they secure?
3.  Coming up with protocols in the case that there was ever an issue with the flow of information, goods, or money
4.  The amount of goods to be transferred and the technique it is transferred with. Is it stored in a warehouse to reduce prices?
5. Choosing a location in Pittsburgh that is profitable. 

Now, I'm clearly no coffee connoisseur or professional, but I have gained a great deal of knowledge to be able to advise Cafe Britt on how they should proceed in dealing with these challenges.

1. They must have transportation lined up for everything. Where are the beans coming from and where are they going after they have been roasted? When negotiating prices from coffee farmers it might also be a good idea to discuss the process in which the beans would be transferred to the company's facilities and who would be taking care of that transportation.Unless Cafe Britt has the resources to create an international transportation company of their own, then it is highly advised that they hire an intermediary. When Doka does exports to the US, they use air freights to get their goods over the ocean and from there they use local shipping.
2. It's very important to have a system set up to keep your company organized, whether it is written or electronic. If it is electronic and secure, then that's even better. Computer systems aren't only necessary to keep track of company information, but they can keep track of exports, imports, clients, customers. Having a store in an international location calls for some extra communication, and an electronic system would make this communication 10 times easier. I would even suggest setting up video calls with your international locations every once in a while to make sure everyone is on the same branch.
3. Issues can occur, especially in a location that is a good distance away from Costa Rica. It doesn't necessarily mean the company is in shambles, but it is important to deal with these issues once they occur so that the company does not hurt its' image. Come up with a protocol for each individual issue that you might encounter. So protocols for how to operate a store in both normal and abnormal situations, how to deal with an unhappy company, taking the steps necessary to amend a security breach are all important issues that must be considered. I think it's also important to understand specifically how something should be done and run. At the end of the day should the manager be making the important calls when it comes to the shop or someone higher up?
4. This is another important thing to consider when having a shop abroad. Shipping internationally can be expensive, so it's important to look at the most cost effective way to ship. Make sure you are only shipping what you need to ship. As you open up a store in Pittsburgh, PA have a month of which you analyze what products people are buying most frequently and from there you should be better able to figure out what you don't need to ship as much of. Another thing to look into is how frequently you would be shipping your items over to Pittsburgh. Doka has a practice where they ship a variety of their products to a warehouse in Miami because it can be expensive to ship on a by order basis. So whenever someone in the US does order something, they can just take it from that warehouse in Miami.
5. From talks with Cafe Britt, they made it clear that they usually place their Britt Shops in "touristy" locations because those are customers of whom their market is targeted towards. They look for emerging markets that they can share their chocolate and coffee in. Based on this ideal I wouldn't necessarily choose Pittsburgh as a location for a Britt Shop, because not many people are necessarily visiting Pittsburgh on "vacation". However, if for some reason Pittsburgh was chosen as a location to be a Britt Shop, a good bet would be to place the Britt Shop in the Pittsburgh International Airport. However, if Cafe Britt was looking to expand its hold outside of tourism and into targeting a newer market then I could see several neighborhoods being a potentially good fit, such as Shadyside and Squirrel Hill. If staying at the Pittsburgh International Airport, it's also important to make sure that the souvenirs are tailored towards what Pittsburgh represents.

This is it! Costa Rica has been so amazing, and I have learned a great deal about the role Logistics plays in the Coffee Business. A truly amazing opportunity, keep an eye out for some highlights!

Adios/Ciao!!

-Fatimah

It taste like ____ smells...5/18/2016

     The coffee business in Costa Rica has been providing economic stability to the country for a long time. Not only with the jobs that it provides, but it has also opened up a new level or tourism within the country. More and more people are constantly finding their way to Costa Rica to find out what the coffee business is, how it works, and what it has to offer. At Cafe Rey, a local coffee roaster we visited today, the exporter manager discussed the fact that many families were dependent on the business. He told us that every time we drink a cup of coffee we should remember at least 350 families are behind that cup of coffee.

     The popular belief is that all of the "good" coffee is usually exported outside of Costa Rica, however Cafe Rey prides themselves in providing high quality coffee to Costa Ricans. Cafe Rey is a local coffee roaster in San Jose that mostly caters to Ticos. They don't produce any coffee beans, they instead buy coffee beans from farmers in different regions of San Jose. Cafe Rey has a variety of blends and something signature to the company is the fact that they mix in sugar when they are roasting their coffee beans. Contrary to Cafe Rey's statements, the majority of coffee farmers that we have visited have said that they export most of their high-quality coffee outside of Costa Rica, leaving Ticos with the low-quality coffee beans. So, it seems like Cafe Rey must have a great relationship set up with their supplier.

 

     I'm not a fair judge of whether the quality is good enough for Ticos, I mean you're talking about a person that needs sugar and milk in her coffee. It is hard to define coffee that is good because everyone has a different sense of what that means. According to Gabby at Dota yesterday, your able to taste the accents on good coffee, you can taste some underlying smell like a horse stable, nuts, or bagels, but to someone else this would be different. Like coffee, Ticos can pull the short hand on fruits like pineapple and mango as well. I think in this instance it would be much easier to tell if the fruit is good quality or not. In this case I'd argue that Ticos deserve and should expect a higher quality of fruit. The fruits are produced in their country, using their resources. It can't possibly be fair that they don't get access to a portion of some of the highest- quality fruits.

     

Part of Cafe Rey's mills and their

 freshly roasted coffee beans

Power in Numbers...5/17/2016

     Our last :( coffee plantation visit today  led us to Coopedota A.L. Unlike most of the other coffee plantations we visited, Coopedota dealed with everything relating to coffee beans. From exporting the green coffee beans to selling their own cups of coffee in cafes in San Jose, they did it all. I believe a large part of their capabilities was due to the fact that Coopedota is a cooperative. A cooperative is a collection of individuals who jointly own a business and are united in attempts to help said business prosper.

 Coopedota

     Coopedota has 850 members apart of its' cooperative, all of whom mostly keep in contact through meetings and letters sent in the mail. In a cooperative all members are on the same level. Power is not necessarily designated to one person, which can be looked at as a good thing or bad thing. When hearing a presentation from one of the general managers at Coopedota, he talked about how having a cooperative gives you the ability to pull knowledge from a variety of different people. So if you have a problem within your company, while you may not know the answer it is probable that the next person will. He also mentioned the fact that it isn't necessarily harder to make a decision for the cooperative. Everyones opinion plays a role in what happens when making a decision and at the end of the day this can be very insightful.

     One of the biggest disadvantages is the fact that everyone always wants more money. However, the general manager talked about this more as it relates to expectations. Expectations can be good because it can help push a company to growth, but on the blind side some members can be blinded by the goals. The general manager mentioned that 11 members had left the cooperative in the last 57 years for reasons similar to the ones above. Another problem, similar to the problems that alot of coffee farms are facing around Costa Rica is getting the younger generation to join the coopertive. Much of the younger generation wants to go out and explore what the world has to offer instead of farming.

DOTA is a cooperative

     If Coopedota was not a cooperative, I don't think they'd be functioning at the capacity they are currently functioning at. Many of the members in the cooperative are farmers that provide mostly ripe beans to Coopedota so that Coopedota can either sell or roast the coffee. If Coopedota was not a cooperative they would not have nearly as much access to coffee beans and therefore they would like be able to do a variety of things with the coffee beans because they wouldn't have as great of a yield as they do.

The green beans are spread out across a concrete pavement

and raked so that the sun can dry it

 

"Cuppers" or taste testers test the quality 

of the coffee

Inside DOTA's milling plant:

Silo full of coffee beans

"From the seed to the cup"...5/16/16

Pura Vida!!

     Our endeavors to further discover the coffee business in Costa Rica continues! Today we visited iCafe and Doka. iCafe is an institute that does a variety of research on coffee. One of their main goals is to promote the image of Costa Rican coffee on an international scale. While iCafe does not sell the coffee that they produce seeing as it is all experimental, they do make sure they share their findings within their research to the public. Doka on the other hand is a very large coffee bean producer, however most of the beans are green coffee beans to be sold to coffee roasters. They roast about 4% of the beans that they produce.

Central office for iCafe in

 Heredia, Costa Rica

At this point in time, the Costa Rican government plays no major role in the regulation of the coffee trade in Costa Rica. They're pretty much like "You're good fam. You got this, don't mess it up for everyone" to Costa Rican farmers. This speaks much more to the characteristic of Costa Rica as a whole. They trust the people to do the right thing, and that is the case. At iCafe we learned that the government doesn't regulate the coffee trade, and I wouldn't feel the need to either seeing as there is very little room for coffee monopolies to form. There are a variety of people to buy from and sell coffee beans to.

    As far as Costa Rican coffee producers exporting to other countries, it all depends on the country they are exporting to. For example, it's expensive for Doka to export coffee to the US, so to try and combat this, they send a variety of their coffee to a warehouse in Miami instead of a specific order of coffee to fit one customers needs. From there the coffee is shipped using local shipping like USPS. With all shipments, Doka must report to iCAFE  and also an inspector will come out and check the coffee to make sure that it is indeed coffee. Dealing with the US specifically, the FDA would want to check the coffee as well just to make sure that the final product will cause no harm to anyone.

     I don't necessarily think that an increase in government regulation would have a negative impact on coffee producers. It's more so about how they adapt to changes. Regulations are meant to ensure safe processes and I don't believe that the Costa Rican government would ever go over board with these regulations. However, if they did, coffee producers would have a harder time exporting the coffee out of the country .

iCafe's Coffee Farm

Tico Farmers...5/14/16

     Although, I would stray far from calling myself a coffee drinker, I will say my appreciation for coffee and the people who play a part in growing coffee have increased. Today we visited Life Monteverde, a local farm here.

It's been an extremely amazing place, definitely my favorite visit by far. The farm not only strives to create sustainability within, but outside as well.  They mentioned that while they take water from the river, they want to make sure it leaves Monteverde Life cleaner than it came in. They also use various sources of energy to help the farm function. For example, they have two pigs that produce Methane Gas used to power their kitchen for 3-4 hours via a biodigester.

Using Lily Water plants to filter 

stream water

What made the farm even greater though, were the people that worked there. Most of the farmers come from Nicaragua to seek better opportunities.  At Life Monteverde, the farmers make a $1.75 per basket of coffee they pick compared to an hourly average minimum wage rate of $1.82 in Costa Rica ( http://costarica.com/business/salary/ ). Rates that are much better when compared to that of Nicaragua. Personally, I still think these rates are low. I would advise the farmer to never settle for less than he/she believes he/she deserves. Don't be tricked when the situation looks better. It is still important to advocate for your own rights and desires. 

     Despite my beliefs, the farmers seem happy with their wages. One of the farmers talked about how being in Costa Rica is helping him grow his own passions and brand, he talked about having a farm of his own in Nicaragua and being able to take what he has learned and apply it over there. 

     The average farmer picks 8-9 baskets a day, however some of the farmers at Life Monteverde can pick upwards of 10-12 baskets a day. One thing that can be a strain is the fact that they only get to see their families 4 to 5 times a year, but at the end of the day everything they do is for their families. 

     Monteverde has been good to me! I bid you adieu, thanks for teaching me a lifetime of history.

The Cloud Forest...5/13/16

     Let's get one thing straight, Monteverde is gorgeous. Today, we got to visit one of Monteverde's main attractions, the Cloud Forest. The Cloud Forest is home to a variety of plant, insect ('o'), bird and mammal  species'. 

Hiking trail in Cloud Forest

     Foreigners have had a huge influence on the Monteverde Cloud Forest and its' surrounding areas. In fact the economy of Monteverde is largely based on tourism and agriculture. Tourism is relatively new to Monteverde.  As we rove through Monteverde I saw a lot of signs advertising coffee tours and tours of the area. It also seemed like Monteverde catered more to tourists, not only at the hotel, but in town as well. At hotel El Establo they had english witten next to each of their selections of the menu in the restaurant and at the Souvenir shop in town the prices were mostly in dollars.

     The cloud forest has been in Monteverde forever, but it was the Quakers whom played a big role in its' preservation. A lot of homesteaders (individuals already present in Monteverde) wanted to cut down some of the land and use it for their own uses, but the Quakers sort of brought them out of this deal. Another fact that I learned during the tour was that one of the Quakers had found a unique species of frog, called the Red Golden Frog at a time when the Monteverde Cloud Forest was just a forest. The Quaker ended up sending the frog to a researcher who was so amazed and in awe by the fact that he had never seen one before that he declared that the area needed to be immediately taped off and preserved.

     Unfortunately we didn't get to hear the Quaker presentation, however our Cloud Forest tour guide, Ricardo, whose parents happened to be Quakers had a lot of valuable information to share. It's important to note that the Quakers played a prominent role. Most of them, who had come from Alabama, USA had already had previous experience in dealing with crops. So when they came to Monteverde they already knew how to work the land.

The other side. The other side. The other side of...5/12/16

Hey!

     I am currently in Monteverde, which I might add is 10x more beautiful than San Jose. We got here yesterday after a 4 hour bus ride. The weather is all over the place! It's usually pretty warm/hot in the morning/afternoons and then rainy in the evening. Yesterday, it misted a lot randomly, but to be honest this is just my type of weather. 

Hotel El Establo, the resort 

we are staying at

(rainbow not necessarily included)

     There was definitely a lot to look at on the drive here. One thing that was noticeable was the general increase in the amount of trash on streets. Before we left Pittsburgh, we found out that Costa Ricans generally didn't care for the cleanliness of their streets, which I instantly thought was a lie when we were in San Jose, but as we traveled further out of San Jose I could tell that  this certainly was the case. 

     Despite the trash, I have been in complete awe since I've been here. Everything is so green and the sky is so blue.

   

Driving through, I also noticed that most of the homes were similar to San Jose homes, they just gave off more of a "beachy" vibe, and they were at times more hidden (but I'm sure this is due to the fact that we were on the highway). I also noticed that there were more street vendors as we drove through. It made me wonder if there were no local markets in their area or if they just saw it more profitable to sell food and fruits to people traveling along through the highway. There are way more tourists here. Even the souvenir shops cater to American dollars. We also saw another study abroad program, so that was interesting!

     My expectations have been exceeded. I definitely expected the sights to be better than those of San Jose and this is the case. Everything is just  a whole lot more peaceful.