Joel standing in a “Stump Harvesting” Field
Vicosa. Maximum production of the coffee plant occurs in its second and third years of growth. This is a relatively new technique (4 yrs) that capitalizes on this. Coffee is planted and then harvested every two years by stumping the plant (cutting it off at the base). The idea is to plant as intense as possible and every two years harvest by stumping. The coffee plant is then taken to processing where the coffee is extracted from the branches. Since coffee is only harvested every two years, labor costs are greatly reduced. Very few farms have mechanical harvesting in the Matas de Minas region due to its rugged topography so labor is one of their biggest concerns. Production using this technique can reach 200 bags per hectare every two years (so by simple math an average annual production of 100 bags/hectare). This is nearly twice the average production of the region. Due to the intensity of the planting (row spacing is 1.30m, plant spacing is .25m) irrigation is required (notice the pvc in the photo above). The process is new and I haven’t seen too many farms with this kind of production. I also haven’t seen any data or cups to test the effect on quality. Please let me know if you have.
