The Coffee Industry is in Bad Shape

The Coffee industry has two Components: Growing Coffee and Processing Coffee. And both are in bad shape.

Coffee farmers always want make more money, and to do this they have produced new varieties of the Coffee plant to produce more Coffee. Originally it was a plant that grew in the shade; underneath the large trees that formed the canopy of the forests. These new varieties will grow in the sunshine, and can produce more coffee. But they are more delicate, and susceptible to more diseases.

A virus has appeared that infects the Coffee leaves. The farmers have to spray for this, and  this spray costs money. They have also added fertilizer to this spray, which produces more Coffee, but costs money. The bottom line: they are not making more money.

Now I turn to the second component: processing the Coffee.

There used to be two large Coffee processing plants in the Orosi area, one in Orosi, and a huge one in Cachi. Now there is one. Processing plants are now more efficient, cheaper, and employ fewer people. Bottom line: less money is made here.

The big plants welcomed visitors, but the new plants do not. So I am not certain of its location.