Structure of the coffee sector

In Costa Rica, the marketing of coffee is in the hands of the private sector; however, the State maintains supervision and control through the Costa Rican Coffee Institute (ICAFE), in which Board of Directors sit representatives of all the actors involved in coffee industry.

The Costa Rica’s coffee industry is made up of four sectors, regulated by the provisions of Law 2762 of June 21, 1961, and its amendments, and by the Bylaws of that Law.   This is in order to guarantee fair representation from each sector.

All sectors are constantly interacting, making up a typical agro-industrial system in which agricultural producers, primary processors (coffee milling centers) of raw material (fruit), final product processors (roasters), and exporters participate.

Coffee Structure

The producer is any person who has the right to work a coffee plantation under any legitimate title and delivers the coffee berry to the milling plant.

The coffee millers have one or more coffee processing plants and are responsible for receiving, processing, financing, and selling the coffee.  They receive the raw material or coffee berry from one or many coffee growers through the receiving stations and convert it into green coffee.  There are coffee milling centers in all of the coffee producing regions in the country.

The exporters are the link to foreign countries.  The exporter’s main role is to prepare and provide quantities of coffee to importers and/or roasting companies that operate in the major coffee-consuming nations.

The roasters are owners of establishments devoted to roasting, grinding, or any other industrial processing of the bean, as well as to its commercialization on a national level.