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Growers’ voice: testing harvest techniques and productivity
Maurilio Braz Borges, a Brazilian coffee producer with 8 ha of coffee planted, ran a test on his farm and shared it on algrano a few weeks ago. Maurilio evaluated the productivity difference of three different harvest techniques and asked Alessandro, another grower from the APAS association to share his results on algrano. Read what he found out!
During 20 minutes, Maurilio tested three types of harvest techniques and measured the quantity of cherries harvested in that period of time (in litres). Here is what he found out and a short description of each technique:
Selective – 10 litres harvested in 20 minutes
Selective picking is a manual harvest technique where the picker will select, by hand, only the ripest fruit on each tree. This means that he will harvest the same tree 2-3 or more times until he has harvested all the cherries. Only ripe cherries are harvested.
Non-selective manual - 30 litres harvested in 20 minutes
The picker will pick the cherries all at once, by hand. This means that he will pick very ripe cherries together with less ripe cherries.
Semi-mechanized - 240 litres harvested in 20 minutes
Using a manual picking machine, the picker shakes every trees with a long mechanized pole and let cherries fall on a cover placed under the trees.
The message Maurilio wants to share is that in a country like Brazil where pickers’ wages are higher than other producing countries, productivity is an important factor for the financial sustainability of the coffee farms. Producing specialty coffees involves higher costs so growers need to see clear incentives to invest in producing higher quality. And they make their own tests!
In Maurilio’s words: “You never know the result of your actions. But if you don’t do anything, there won’t be any results!“
Great insights, straight from the field, thank you Maurilio for sharing this with the community! We are thrilled to see growers using the community to make their voice heard!
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