In the morning, I had breakfast with our host mother and her grandson. I was talking to her grandson about his school, and he told me that today he had an exam in Spanish. After wishing Andrew good luck, I walked to meet with the group and travel to Cafe Britt. At Cafe Britt, we learned about the roasting and processing that coffee beans undergo at Cafe Britt. I learned that Cafe Britt specializes in premium coffee. Since this coffee is very high quality, it is more expensive than other coffees. For this reason, most Costa Ricans do not even drink Cafe Britt’s coffee. Cafe Britt is targeted toward tourists with their tours and online ordering services. Since tourists will pay more for the coffee, they are the main audience of Cafe Britt. Cafe Britt has a variety of products in their company. Along with coffee, they sell chocolate products and travel souvenirs like magnets and clothing. Coffee is not even their most popular product. Their most popular product may be their chocolate products that they sell. These chocolate products include chocolate covered coffee beans and chocolate covered fruit.
In the coffee supply chain, Cafe Britt is mostly a company that buys processed coffee beans from other companies, and then roasts and packages these beans. They specialize in the roasting of the coffee beans. However, recently they purchased a portion of Doka’s coffee plantation and Doka’s processing mill. Since there are less coffee plantations in Costa Rica, they needed to guarantee a supply of coffee beans to roast. By purchasing land and a mill from Doka, they will be able to grow, process, and roast coffee beans. While Doka is more focused on the origins of the coffee beans and the growing of the coffee beans, Cafe Britt is specialized on the roasting and brewing process of coffee.
Cafe Britt’s complex business plan has contributed to its great financial success. Although Cafe Britt spans across five different companies, it is a Multi-Local company. This means that in each country, they source their beans from local plantations in that country. By sourcing their beans from local coffee plantations, this maintains a sense of uniqueness of the product for each country. Costumers are more attracted to the authentic, local coffee that Cafe Britt customizes for their country. I think this is an excellent strategy for their company, and it has proven to be very effective. Additionally, in the tropical agriculture lecture I attended this afternoon, I learned about the current problem in Costa Rica of land use conflicts. Farmers, conservationists, and people that want to urbanize are all competing for land in Costa Rica. The vast majority of land inheritors are professionals in non-agricultural careers. Many coffee growers are selling their land for real estate companies as well. Cafe Britt aimed to solve this sourcing problem by buying Doka’s land and processing mill. I believe this is a smart decision for Cafe Britt to ensure they have a steady, reliable supply of coffee beans for their use. They may even consider buying more of Doka’s land to entirely grow their own coffee beans
After touring Cafe Britt and learning about tropical agriculture, the group attended dance lessons. I had lots of fun learning salsa and the other dancing styles. The music was very lively, and everyone really enjoyed it! I am excited to travel to Monteverde tomorrow and visit the cloud forest.
