1720 is the likely date of the introduction of coffee to America when the first seeds of the Coffea Arabica Typica variety arrived in the island of Martinique , West Indies, which were then planted in the Province Costa Rica in the late eighteenth century.At that time our country was subsistence farming . Costa Rican history changed since 1808 under the aegis of Governor Thomas Acosta began to take root in our soil cultivation of coffee, which has permeated deeply into being and Costa Rican work.Costa Rica was the first Central American country to establish this burgeoning industry . Prominent personalities contributed to the development of culture and has been assigned to Father Felix Velarde as the first planter , who in 1816 refers to having a floor with coffee plants. The first coffee plantation was 100 meters north of the Metropolitan Cathedral , on the corner of Central Avenue and Zero Street .Several factors favored the establishment of the "golden bean " . The places around which the first plantings were made , were characterized by soils of volcanic origin extremely fertile , a rainy season and a dry , relatively uniform temperatures and favorable throughout the year for plant development .After independence in 1821 , local governments were the first to encourage the cultivation of plants delivery policies and land grant to take an interest in this company . The municipality josefina , a pioneer in this effort was soon emulated by other administrative bodies of settlements : Carthage and Three Rivers.The Heads of State Mr. Juan Mora Fernández and Braulio Carrillo supported the coffee industry and coffee saw a product that would generate an economic movement to benefit our economy and enabling economic and social development in Costa Rica . Mr. Mariano Montealegre is considered as the main driver of the crop between 1830-1840 .As the first plants growing interest Ticos was increased by cultivation. Already in 1821 there were 17,000 coffee trees in production , the first export of 2 pounds of coffee to Panama having been made in 1820. Around 1840 , Mr. Braulio Carrillo decreed that the lands west of San José , in Pavas, were devoted to coffee plantations . The Head of State thought that the Government should direct the coffee policy and responsible for seeking markets and that the most important was English. Therefore, parallel to support planting ordered to build the road to the Atlantic that would allow Costa Rica to have a direct route to British ports .
The export of coffee:Decades elapsed between the introduction of coffee and its consolidation as an export product . During that time the authorities of Costa Rica took a series of measures to boost the industry , among which are : 1821 : the Municipality of San José distributes free coffee plants among neighbors ; 1825 : Government releases the coffee tithing , 1831 , the National Assembly decreed that anyone who cultivate coffee for 5 years wasteland could claim her .The export of coffee was developed since 1832 when Mr. George Stiepel , trading with England , made his first sale through Chile. The coffee trade with Europe was consolidated in the 1840s , after the Englishman William Lacheur will arrive on the boat The Monarc Caldera and visiting San José negotiate the purchase of vintage Mr. Santiago Fernández Hidalgo , one of the main coffee of the time and founded "The Labyrinth " owner .In 1841 the ship Alcyone came from London with goods consigned by Mr. Stiepel 38,079 pesos , half of imports by 1841 Puntarenas. For lack of better options , Fernandez risked giving their coffee abroad and he had bought from other producers with a commitment to bringing back Lacheur profits from the sale of the product. The English kept his promise and in 1845 returned with money and ships. Fernandez became the first exporter of coffee from Costa Rica to the old world.But Fernandez 's work did not stop there : he promoted the introduction of more effective methods for processing ( benefited ) coffee; funded the opening of a route to Sarapiqui and empowerment Tárcoles port for foreign trade . With the fall of Carrillo in 1842 , was completed directing coffee policy , forgot you manage tax cuts in British ports and road construction was suspended the Atlantic . This forced the nascent coffee trade using Puntarenas and Cape Horn route , which meant paying a freight of 5 pounds per ton when by Matina, Limón, would cost 30 to 40 shillings.The booming business coffee led to the rapid establishment of commercial companies that exported coffee to Europe while importing manufactured goods from the old continent machines grind corn and wheat , iron plates , etc. . who traded on Costa Rican soil . Most of the members of these consortia were young with an entrepreneurial spirit but lacked that big capital were willing to give more stability to the companies with their farms , which happened to be part of the background of those. A pristine example of this was the association of Juan Rafael Mora and Vicente Aguilar.With the completion of the way to Puntarenas in 1846 , which revolutionized the coffee business as possible to replace the mules for wagons , grain became the only export of Costa Rica until 1890 , and the pivot of the economy national . During this period its cultivation spread to lands west of the Central Valley , suitable for cultivation due to its characteristics of topography and climate and road connection to that secondary roads.Soon new names were added to the coffee growing stock, including no shortage Countries: Hipolite Tournon , Emilio Challe , the Lindo Brothers , George Seevers , Max Koberg , the Rohrmoser siblings, family von Schroter , Castro brothers , Wilhelm Peters, etc . Nor should we forget the coffee Creole : Florentino Castro, the Montealegre , Ortuño, Bonilla and Gonzalez Flores, etc. . Many of them not only took on the challenge of producing quality coffee in areas of stale tradition but who formed east of the farms in the Central Valley , once the Atlantic railroad facilitated the colonization of the area in the late nineteenth century .Costa Rica 's coffee was exported with reputable brands that baptized their own product to taste. The grain was of such quality that did not need a great promotional device for placement in the markets. That excellence is derived from a continuous improvement in techniques and benefited uninterrupted introduction of mechanisms whose beneficial effect on the quality of the coffee was known . The implementation of new techniques in the benefited coincided with the consolidation of the European consumer market Costa Rican coffee .At the dawn of each producer activity dried coffee on your patio, descascaraba manually with "pylon " and destined for family consumption . In the late 1830s benefited took a radical turn when Don Buenaventura Espinach Gaul , Catalan with mining experience , built a paved courtyard and the first wet mill south of Carthage, in the "El Molino " .One of the main innovations of the wet processing was fermenting fruit during processing because the coffee flavor appreciably improved . As the large farmers stood lie in the need to increase the quality of the product being exported , wet processing was extended to acquire legitimacy letter . Thanks to the quality of the grain , Costa Rican coffee could cope with the crisis that occurred in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Despite the low prices, domestic grain , unlike other lower quality , found a safe niche in the international market, which has been consolidated over time.In the first decades of the twentieth century were many inventions introduced to reduce the time and increase the quality benefited coffee : drying machines stood ( guardiolas ) , pulping , grinding and sorting . Since not all producers have the economic ability to invest in the installation of wet mills , went beneficiadores forming a group receiving the harvest of many small producers . These entrepreneurs established strict rules for receiving the coffee of their clients , among them stood out, Luis von Schroter , Juan and Adolfo Knöhr , Hipolite Tournon , John Dent, the Lindo brothers , Florentino Castro and Julio Sánchez Lépiz .Mechanization of agribusiness continue to benefit throughout the twentieth century. With the extension of the cultivated area increased proportionally capacity of the processing plants, and although most remained relatively small size, few could process up to four thousand bushels in the late nineteenth century .The number of establishments also increased following the coffee expansion towards the ends of the Central Tectonic Depression ; plants at these sites were established to facilitate the transportation of the fruit to the reception centers . Until the 1920s most of the coffee is transported in oxcarts , from that date , systematic improvements in transportation became the growth of the area covered by each receiver and the consequent competition for capture as possible number of customers.With the colonization of the southern, northern and northwestern Central Tectonic Depression, trading houses established receivers and coffee processing plants in the colonization fronts , that while in the early decades of the twentieth century were pioneers in these regions , eventually found in other companies or competitors in the same producers organized in cooperatives.
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