Cafe Britt Tarrazu Montecielo Ground Coffee
If Costa Rican coffee producers decided to roast their own grains, international markets would pay a price six times higher than the current amount they pay for green grains.
Today, 99% of national producers sell green coffee, because roasting demands additional investments they cannot afford.
According to the manager of Promotion for the Coffee Institute of Costa Rica (Icafé), Minor Arroyo, one kilogram of green coffee is sold at $3.52, whereas a kilogram of roasted coffee is sold at $22 at a supermarket in the United States, which means that buyers who make mixtures, add value and pack the coffee have the largest share of the profits.
Francois Castells, representative of the Association of Fine Coffees, reported the main problems to sell roasted coffee are the fact that producers are unaware of the demand, they need a good cash flow because profits are not immediate, they have to make a huge investment in machinery, good packaging and transportation, plus the 15% tax for importing other grains for the mixture.
In addition, Costa Rica only has 65 roasters, compared to thousands of independent producers. This explains why the country exports just $ 3.6 million in roasted coffee and $ 305.9 million gold coffee.