Can We Improve Efficiency & Quality in Coffee Picking?

perfectdailygrind.com/2018/10/can-we-improve-efficiency-quality-in-coffee-picking/

traductora@perfectdailygrind.com October 2, 2018

Do you want to produce high-quality coffee that should result in higher prices? Or do you
want to efficiently produce coffee, reducing investment and so increasing profit margins that
way?

What if you could do both?

The coffee harvest is a key stage in determining a coffee’s worth. It’s important that only
ripe cherries are harvested to ensure the final product is of the highest quality.

But while global demand for coffee is increasing, many coffee-producing countries are
facing a labour shortage – one that, in the worst of cases, can lead to coffee cherries being
picked too late or even going unpicked.

I had the opportunity to speak with Alvaro Gaitán, Director of the National Coffee Research
Center Cenicafé in Colombia, about how Colombia is responding to this challenge.

You might also like How Ripe Is Too Ripe? A VIDEO Guide to Coffee
Cherry Picking

Carlos Ramirez inspects the ripe Castillo coffee cherries on his farm, La Palma, in Gaitania,
Tolima, Colombia. Credit: Angie Molina

Why Is Cherry Picking So Important?

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In 2016, the Specialty Coffee Association of America (now part of the Specialty Coffee
Association/SCA) and Solaridad released a report, Understanding The Situation Of
Workers In Corporate And Family Coffee Farms.

The report found that:

“Quality coffee and labour availability are closely related. So are the need to manually
select and harvest the ripe fruit, and the producer’s ability to manage pests such as berry
borer or coffee rust. Labour availability is redrawing the map of coffee production areas in
several countries and challenging the definition of high quality and commercially viable
coffee in the coming years.”

In other words, coffee quality is often determined by labour. It’s labour that determines if
you can follow best practices, including harvesting ripe fruit, sorting out defective cherries,
and carefully processing and drying the beans. And in turn, it’s doing this that helps you
protect your farm against coffee pests.

Consistency is also a key part of quality: consistent cup scores, consistent processing
methods, and consistent farm methods. This means that having an unreliable labour force
can be as problematic as having one that’s too small.

And the solution is not as simple as paying better wages, especially when labour is already
such a large part of the average producer’s budget. According to Alvaro, in Colombia, it
accounts for 40–42% of the cost of production.

So, what can producers do?

A view from a coffee farm in Planadas, Tolima, Colombia. Credit: Angie Molina

Researching New Picking Methods

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Alvaro tells me that the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation, through Cenicafé, has been
working on coffee-picking technology since the early ‘90s. “Over the last few years, the
labour shortage is what has made us move towards these technologies,” he explains.

They’ve been looking to countries like Brazil, where automation is common across many of
its large and relatively flat farms. However, Cenicafé have been working to adapt the
technology to Colombian coffee-growing conditions. This means considering the local
topography, weather, and typical pattern of fruit ripening.

Find out more! Read Hand-Picked vs Mechanized Coffee Harvesting

He explains that the objective is not 100% automation, but to find ways in which automation
can aid producers in harvesting.

This includes technology such as mechanical shakers, with vibrating “hands” at the end
that shake the cherries off the tree. This technology is already in use in countries like Brazil,
but Cenicafé has been testing it to see how it affects efficiency and quality.

They’ve also been conducting their own research to support what they’ve learned from
Brazil. “For instance,” Alvaro says, “[we’ve been researching to] know many details about
the physics of the coffee tree and the coffee cherries and understand how the tree moves
and how much strength (measured in Newtons) is needed for a green or ripe cherry to be
removed from the tree.”

What’s more, they’ve integrated feedback from producers. “[Labour shortages] push
owners to ask for more technology, to look for it and test it, and this has helped us a lot…
When they start to try it and see that they need it, then it gives us feedback and helps us to
improve the designs and understand what’s needed.”

The view from Finca Villa Coffee in Bilbao, Tolima, Colombia. Credit: Angie Molina

Two Tools to Aid Coffee Picking

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Alvaro tells me that Cenicafé has been working on two particular tools for producers:
meshes and mechanical shakers.

The mesh can be placed on the ground underneath the coffee trees. Then, all of the
cherries can be picked at one time and allowed to fall onto the mesh, meaning up to three
times as many cherries are collected at once. At this point, the cherries should be sorted,
with any unripe ones removed.

The meshes are made of Saran and have Velcro ends, allowing multiple meshes to be
attached together. In this way, all the ground between the trees can be completely covered.

Alvaro emphasises that, for Colombia, this is a completely new way of working: one that’s
more efficient but still requires quality control. It may also mean a new payment system for
pickers. This is because coffee pickers are typically paid by the kilo. However, with the
mesh, it would be much harder to determine who picked which cherries.

Juan Carlos Monsalve is the General Manager of Finca San José in Quindío, Colombia. He
tells me that he sees the mesh enabling better teamwork. “This could increase the yield of
the picking and eventually improve the processes,” he says.

The other method, the mechanical shaker (which Cenicafé calls a derribadora), removes
cherries by shaking the branches. The weight of the riper, heavier cherries causes them to
then fall off. It could also be used in combination with a mesh.

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Placing a mesh underneath coffee trees, ready for picking the cherries, in Chinchiná,
Caldas, Colombia. Credit: Cenicafé

Best Practices for Using a Mesh

However simple the mesh may sound, it presents new challenges. In particular, Alvaro
highlights the facts that, in Colombia, coffee ripens at different times across the country and
many trees are planted per hectare. The high density can make it hard to place mesh in
between the trees.

What’s more, the mesh is traditionally used for for strip picking, meaning that all the coffee
cherries are removed from the tree at the same time. Yet Colombia’s conditions better suit
harvesting the cherries in several goes, only picking the ripe ones each time.

Alvaro says that, with a mesh, you would need to wait longer before beginning harvesting to
ensure that as many cherries as possible were ripe.

“One of the recommendations we give in Colombia is to not pick so often,” he says, “as
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there are some who pick every 14 days. So, we ask producers to leave the cherries on the
tree for thirty days. In this way, they will have a greater yield to pick and so be able to use
the mesh. When using mechanical harvesters, once the coffee is picked, producers could
use a machine that selects the fruits according to the colour and only depulps the ripe
cherries.”

Producers, you should also consider the variety of coffee that you’re growing. In high
humidity, Alvaro says that varieties such as Caturra and Bourbon ripen quickly. The
cherries may even fall from the tree if the harvest is too delayed, meaning they become
unusable and the yield greatly decreases. “With our Castillo and Cenicafé 1 [varieties], we
don’t see a lot of fruit falling,” Alvaro adds.

Carlos Felipe Hoyos is the General Manager of Finca La Esperanza in Chinchiná, Caldas,
Colombia. He adds that leaving the cherries on the tree for longer may lead to problems if
you’re struggling with pests. The coffee berry borer beetle (la broca), for example, can
cause huge problems for a farm.

Alvaro agrees with this. He says, “If you do a good integrated pest control, and delay cherry
picking [on a farm] with a low incidence of borer beetle, you won’t experience an increase in
the amount of beetles on the farm.

“But if you wait longer to pick the cherries, and you haven’t done a good treatment, and you
delay picking [on a farm] with high levels of borer beetle, you will see it in [even] higher
levels. So, the early treatment is very important.”

Castillo coffee grows at Finca Buena Vista in Gaitania, Tolima, Colombia. Credit: Angie
Molina

What About The Unripe Cherries?

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Cherry ripeness is crucial for coffee quality, which is why you must sort out unripe cherries
if you use a mesh. However, what should you then do with the green cherries? And what
about the overripe ones? Do they go to waste?

The unripe cherries:

Alvaro tells me, “We are figuring out how we can do a pre-fermentation and then process
these cherries as normal.” He explains that they may be able to turn these cherries into
coffee of varying quality and so avoid “losing income” due to having more green cherries.

The overripe cherries:

As for these cherries, Alvaro tells me that initial results look positive. “We have done some
cup quality testing and the quality has not been negatively affected,” he says. “We have
had very good cups. We haven’t noticed any new defects. What we have seen is that we
can keep these cherries and, in some cases, improve the quality in the cup.”

Castillo cherries are collected on a mesh. The green, unripe ones will be removed in
sorting. Credit: Cenicafé

The Cost of a Mesh

Alvaro tells me that the mesh is not an expensive investment, but neither is it remarkably
cheap. “A mesh that’s 10 metres long and three metres wide can cost 250,000 Colombian
pesos [US $85].”

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And the harvesting machines? “Hopefully, they can cost the same as or less than an
industrial grass trimmer, which is commonly used on farms for weeding and costs around
1.3–1.5 million Colombian pesos [US $445–514].”

Although it’s an initial investment, Alvaro believes it could pay off for producers who
experience increased efficiency without sacrificing quality. What’s more, he believes farm
labourers will appreciate it.

“With this technology,” he says, “workers will have better ergonomic conditions for coffee-
picking. They won’t get too tired and they will be more efficient. Also, I hope that, in terms of
remuneration, this can be an attractive job.”

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Coffee producers set up a mesh underneath a coffee tree, ready to begin picking cherries.
Credit: Cenicafé

Coffee producers, you need to work towards the golden triangle: quality, efficiency, and
productivity. Every element is important for profitability. But achieving all three is not an
easy task.

And as the coffee industry changes, with growing demand for coffee but continuing labour
shortages, innovation is needed. It’s important that you find ways to harvest all your coffee
without sacrificing quality – and, if you have less workers on the farm, that simply means
that efficiency must become even more important.

Found this interesting? Check out How Ripe Is Too Ripe? A VIDEO
Guide to Coffee Cherry Picking

Written by Angie Molina. All quotes translated from Spanish to English by the author.

Please note: This article has been sponsored by the Colombian Coffee Growers
Federation.

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