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Picking coffee on the Rodriguezes farm outside Heredia

Alfonzo Rodriguez paying the coffee pickers as they load the truck. the going rate for the pickers is about a dollar a basket, and the farmers get a couple of bucks a pound for the premium coffee that is worth around $15 a pound in the US

The whole family gets involved at harvest time. This little girl is resting on bags of coffee beans.

As the trucks are unloaded the quantity of beans is measured by the number of times the red box at the bottom fills up. The guy with the graduated cylinder is measuring out one liter of beans. Next he will count the number of red and green beans. The price that is paid is higher for higher percentages of red beans.

After the coffee beans are peeled, they are laid in the sun to dry then roasted in ovens with pans that rotate under an open flame.