Beneficio San Marcos

A wet mill, dry mill, exporter, and cooperative Beneficio San Marcos provide services for a number of producers. Forming in 2013, they directly support more than 200 as well as over 1000 more via other cooperatives. This is through the provision of technical assistance, milling services, quality control, marketing and export. This was hugely valuable at the time as previously those cooperatives would have to transport their coffee far further which would often have an impact on the quality.

Cherry or parchment coffee is received at the wet or dry mill. Cherry is seen as a good thing if on time, as it is easier to separate any unripe cherries at this stage than later and this results in a more consistent quality for the exporter. They can more carefully control honey or natural processes too, beneficial as a speciality focussed group. A new mill has been bought to further offer value by being able to better focus on just this operation. Spare capacity at the mill is made available to other producers in the area.

Parchment is still the most common way coffee is received, and there are warehouses for certified and conventional stocks to accommodate that. A new pre cleaner was added to the equipment at he end of 2022 alongside new silos in which to store the coffee. Bulk shipments are also being accommodated in part as a way to reduce the use of plastic as well as provide scales of economy and bring in another revenue stream.