Orlando Paz, owner of La Cuchilla Farm, Honduras

Coffee production for the market is both labor intensive and requires specific geographical and weather conditions for beans to develop the desirable characteristics that we look for in a cup of coffee. Most coffee is produced in the Bean Belt - an area between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn. The humidity, temperatures, soil, and climate conditions in the mountainous areas of this region allow the coffee plant to thrive and taste its best.

The farms that grow coffee can vary vastly in size, production volume, and access to funding, technology for coffee processing, and certifications. Farms can be as small as a few trees to as big as the size of Colombia!

Small farms are usually owned and operated by families, and when it comes time to harvest, the owner, their family, and friends pick cherries by hand. Because of high costs of organic and other certifications, farmers at this level can rarely afford them, even if their coffee is grown with minimal to no use of chemicals and pesticides.

When it comes to processing, owners of small farms often cannot process or export their own coffee, and have little control over the price of their beans. They typically do not have direct access to foreign markets and rely on various intermediaries such as local consolidators and wet mills to process and purchase their coffee. However, countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, and Costa Rica have strong government support for centralized processing mills, which means coffee quality can be controlled better and small farmers can sell their coffee for a higher price.

Autonomy in the coffee supply increases in medium farms. Owners of medium-sized farms can hire full-time and seasonal employees to farm, harvest, and process their coffee. They also have access to technology to process their own coffee and export it alone or in cooperation with other farms, which gives the farmers more control over the pricing of their coffee. At this level, farmers have greater resources to afford organic and other certifications, separate coffee into varieties and lots, and use innovative processing techniques.

Large farms grow, process, and oftentimes export their own coffee. While almost every country has large estates, Brazil is most famous for the enormous size and productivity of its farms. Permanent and seasonal employees harvest and process the coffee. Many large farms produce inexpensive commercial coffee (think Wawa and Dunkin Donuts) and low-grade specialty coffee (Starbucks). But with the decreased costs of production and the high volume of coffee, these farms have more money to afford certifications, separate varietals, day lots, used innovative processing techniques, and blend unroasted coffee if the farm owners are interested in producing high grade specialty coffee.

From Bean to Cup Part 2: Growing and Farming