People
Cordillera de Fuego is a coffee producer, exporter and roaster, located in Alajuela, Costa Rica. Before being registered with ICAFE, this modern business did have the full operation it has today. They broke in their new mill for the 2015-2016 harvest.
Today, Cordillera de Fuego is a private company run by José Francisco Fernández Arias and Luis Eduardo Campos Varela. They are two coffee experts with more than 30 years in the coffee sector. They both boast extensive knowledge of innovative coffee processes. From coffee production to processing and export up to the managing of other business activities such as livestock, agriculture and commerce,
The goal of Cordillera de Fuego is to strengthen its position in the specialty coffee sector. The coffee is sold to customers in Costa Rica, England, Belgium, Bulgaria, Japan, Korea, Italy, Germany, Taiwan, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates.
Cordillera de Fuego has worked greatly on increasing the production capacity but maitaining quality. They aim to innovate the specialty coffee process, and to do so they need coffees with different profiles.
The process of anaerobic fermentation starts with the selection of handpicked, mature super riped coffee cherries. The coffee is de-pulped and put in stainless steel tanks with limited oxygen. During the phase inside the fermentation tank, the levels of O2 diminish and the CO2 increases, creating pressure in the fermentation tank. This low oxygen environment changes the composition of the present micro-organisms (e.g. lactic acid bateria), allowing the coffee to develop a unique series of acids, such as fruity malic acids, which will translate to a very complex flavour.
The drying area has a modern automated oven using 95% of the biomass capacity with 180 heat exchangers which will combust 100% of the husk of the coffee. This oven not only consumes less electricity and biomass but also has a double combustion chamber which will minimize air contamination.
Cordillera de Fuego has also a fully equipped laboratory for quality control, research and development of new coffees and processes.
Price
The Coffee Quest builds transparent value chains linking growers and roasters. We supply only traceable and transparent high-quality coffee. In 2020, we dived into the economics behind the beans, in our Quest for radical price transparency. Our origin researcher, Marian Osinga, set out interviews with producers, millers and authorities, and led the way into how The Coffee Quest sees price transparency in Costa Rica.
Costa Rica has a “coffee law – law 2762”, which stands at the core of a unique governing system which provides price transparency and fair practice for all Costa Ricans. ICAFE is the sector organisation behind the law’s implementation, working as a development authority in the coffee sector. Through law 2762, ICAFE regulates transactions between farmers and millers, miller and exporters, and guarantees that the returns from coffee are fairly distributed between all stakeholders.
Fair distribution of coffee returns in Costa Rica starts with the export price. It is only when coffee is exported that all stakeholders in the chain know its final value. Then, they start counting backwards to determine what slice of the pie goes to whom. Click on read more to really dive into the topic.
Farmer’s perspective
The farmer is tied to the land and grows coffee. He sells his red coffee cherries to a miller and pays pickers and other staff that help him on his farm. When a farmer delivers cherries to a miller, the cherries are measured in “fanega”, which is a measurement of volume (opposite to for example kg, which is a measurement of weight). The farmer then gets an advance for the cherries delivered but has to wait for the closing of the export season to see what the value of his cherries was (after the miller has made them into green coffee and the exporter has found a buyer who wants to pay a particular price). Eventually, the farmer will get around 80% of the export price (FOB) of the coffee.
Miller’s perspective
The Miller buys cherries from farmers and processes them into green coffee ready for export. The coffee is then exported or sold to an exporter for consolidation with other micro mill lots. All producers on our list fall into this last category. A miller registers amounts of cherry purchased and delivers a declaration of production costs and sales. Then, it’s the turn of exporters with ICAFE. A miller can make a maximum profit of 9%.
Exporter’s perspective
The exporter buys coffee from a miller and sells it to an importer like The Coffee Quest. The exporter consolidates shipments, does sampling & paperwork, and plans logistical movements. The exporter will have expenses to complete the export, and declare the export costs and revenues with ICAFE. Exporters can make a maximum 2,3% profit on the export price.
ICAFE’s perspective
ICAFE’s role in the chain is very interwoven with all stakeholders. The organization helps the farmer on various developmental themes, like: Agricultural production, quality, sustainability and economics. In collaboration with the farmers, they do soil analysis, suggest fertilization schedules, help plant shade trees, and do research in new varieties and agricultural best practices. Through FONECAFE, it also maintains a security fund, in case coffee prices fall below the cost of production for individual farmers. In order to fund their activities, ICAFE charges a tax or contribution on coffee business, which amounts to 1,47% of the export price.
At the end of the season, ICAFE will calculate a “Final Liquidation Price” from the revenues of all Costa Rica coffee exports, and the costs declared to make that revenue. Thereby they determine nationwide, how large the coffee pie actually was this year. A financial settlement then takes place among all coffee chain stakeholders, including the producers.
The Coffee Quest’s perspective
Price transparency is a complex promise to uphold. The result depends heavily on the structure of the sector, the amount of data available and the amount of time a company has to research and provide in this. If you buy coffee from a producer, who also processes, mills and exports, it’s more straightforward, however, this isn’t always the case.
In the Costa Rica context, it’s easy to get a FOB price that is paid to the exporter, or maybe even to the exporting miller. But that still doesn’t say anything about the price the farmer who grows the cherry actually gets.
The cherry farmer delivering to one of our micro-mill suppliers, will get 1 average price for his cherry as a result of the whole coffee season. The FOB price, The Coffee Quest pays to the exporter, will negatively or positively affect this average. We set out transparency ambition high at The Coffee Quest, and therefore that is exactly what we aspire to know.
Transparency is regulated by law in Costa Rica, and all internal prices and volumes as well as export prices and the final liquidation price per miller are published on ICAFE’s website. This means that we have been able to set up a calculation that derives the contribution of The Coffee Quest purchases in Costa Rica, to the final liquidation price to the farmer delivering cherry to the micromill. Being able to share this makes us incredibly happy!
The method we use is based on data on our suppliers in ICAFE publications of coffee commercialization, which can be found here; ICAFE/coffee sector/final settlement benefit, and ICAFE/coffee sector/commercialization/sales per zone. The calculation results are validated, and costs are adapted according to interviews with millers and exporters. The result is a farm gate cherry price in Colones per Fanega, which we have translated for you into a price in Euro per kilo, in green coffee equivalent.
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Planet
Cordillera de Fuego is a highly innovative business, which could not leave environmental sustainability out of its agenda. About 100% of the energy consumption of the plant is indeed produced by solar panels and many other sustainable agricultural practices are implemented, such as reducing GHG emissions and keeping control of water use.
What’s more? 50-year-old trees are kept to provide shade for the coffee plants and lowering the average temperature at the plantation. In this way, they can limit the use of fertilizers, allowing a healthier soil life to exist. Moreover, all coffee pulp is treated and re-used to fertilize the soil.
The modern oven used to dry cherries gets 90% of its fuel from cascara, and its modernity lies primarily in the heat systems which reduces the GHG emission.
“All we are doing is not, for now, it is for the future, for the environment, for our sons, for the continuity of the mill. This is very important for the community here” – Don Luis Alberto
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