Opportunity orange & coffee finca

There is a good investment in the Blue Zone of Costa Rica!

Income producing finca is offered:

• 15 ha / 37 acres estate with internal road system
• country house on 175m² / 1880 sqft with 2 BR, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, office, storage

Plantation:

• 150 orange trees planted before 2010
• 2000 orange trees planted in 2014
• 100 lime trees planted in 2016
• 50 mandarine trees planted in 2016
• several mango, papaya, avocado, moringa trees, banana plants in abundance
• 7000 coffee plants (Arabica Costa Rica 95) planted in 2014

More details: https://bluezonefinca.wordpress.com/

Can coffee be carbon neutral?

Yet another certificate! Wow!

Coffee produced in Costa Rica could soon be commercialized as the first coffee in the world to have the Carbon Neutral certification, this, thanks to a plan that should increase the production and quality of the coffee bean, while reducing the carbon emissions in its process.

The Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Environment and the Inter-American Development Bank are the institutions promoting this initiative, which would mean reaching more destinations and obtaining higher profit from this product.

Costa Rica already exports close to US$300 million a year of coffee, with North America being the main buyer. The country would be the first one to implement the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMA) in the coffee sector internationally, which would give make this product unique and would give it aggregated value.

“Costa Rica has plenty of experience when it comes to coffee production and a big desire to innovate; which is why it is the ideal candidate to develop the first NAMA in the world focused in this sector “, commented Luis Roberto Chacón general coordinator of the project.

This strategy involves reducing the use of fertilizers and other chemicals in the crops, and negotiating with other countries, especially in Europe that are willing to pay more for a higher quality.

Agriculture is one of the activities that has priority in the c-neutral national strategy, the country has allocated over $2.2 million since 2014 in the search and application of sustainable technologies and improved productive practices.

Over 3 thousand coffee producers received training in these topics and the different systems used in the plantations to help determine which are more efficient in terms of the use of energy and production costs.

The National Coffee Institute received six new meteorological stations to monitor and prevent plagues such as the roya fungus and the ojo de gallo disease.

Costa Rica Invest

By the way, no-one can do without money, not even a farmer, not even with fair trade , an occasional visit from the Costarican Ministery of Cattle and Agriculture (MAG).

So, here’s something about investments, including plantation stuff, coffe, citrus etc.

When I’m on the road, I often think that virtually everything is for sale in Costa Rica – especially the land.

So, if you want to have a look at some hard facts, here you go: the costa-rica-invest blog.

Nightly Visitor

Wildlife can be very funny here and sometimes has the potential to go viral.

I am not talking about funny coloured coral snakes, but “zorros” which is the translation of “fox”, but it’s nothing like a fox as in Europe or North America. They are nocturnal animals, which feed on whatever comes along in forests, coffee plantations, near houses.

All you need is some food, like some spare bananas and a trail cam.

Just watch the video and look at its tail!

 

Blue Zone Serum

This is an awkward connection between first world luxury and third world farming. Chanel is using the notion of blue zones to enhance/market a new product.

The company extract some essence from manually dried coffee beans harvested near Nicoya, one of the 5 blue zones, to enrich an anti-aging thing for ladies willing  to spend a fortune on this.

Now, I’m not a plain old coffee farmer anymore! I’m growing anti-aging products!

Read more in La Republica. It’s worth watching the video. It’s just what you would expect.

Pest control

The big buzz word amongst tropical farmers is “control de plagas” or pest control. It’s all about keeping as much of your harvest alive through the growing and  ripening period. This goes for any fruit: bananas, coffee, oranges, passion fruit. Some are more likely to be affected by “insect predators”, larvae, worms, birds or other nightmares of fauna.

Right now, I find oranges to be a real nuisance. I collect almost more  oranges on the ground which have been picked by greedy birds than I can harvest.

Frigidaire support

Does anyone have experience with Frigidaire support?

I had a problem with my oven and the fridge and tried to contact them: a nightmare.

First of all, they only offer direct phone support (0800 052 1672) which can be reached by landline phones, which is quite stupid thing to do in Costa Rica. Then I sent them an email to serviciocostarica@electrolux.com). No reply!

After that, I contacted Frigidaire in Canada twice. Again: no reply, just an automated email that someone is going to contact me within 48 hours.

How bad can customer service get?

Or are they just greedy or unable?

Or do they make a difference between first and third world countries?

Buying checklist

Before buying property in Costa Rica don’t forget to check these issues or better have them checked by a trustable lawyer. Verify

• that the seller is the registered owner and that you can legally buy the property
• that the property is registered as a separate entity. The vast majority of properties are registered in the Registro Nacional. If a property is not recorded, give it a month or two and make sure that the seller registers it properly!  After all, Costa Rica has quite fast and straightforward procedures:
  

Source: Worldbank.org

Finding things to buy

Latest news: San Jose is the fifth most expensive city in Latin America. Only 94 cities in the world are more expensive.
But who would want to live in San José anyway? Living in the countryside is a different story. You can curb costs by keeping your own chicken, having your own garden & growing (almost) anything you want and brewing your own beer (just a joke!).

Ordering Epoxy at Amazon Canada to have it shipped to a nice Canadian guy who is coming to visit us in a few weeks

What is more annoying is that it is often difficult to find non-standard equipment, tools or foods. I guess you just have to get used to it and find some good spots, where to buy them.

A lot of foreigners rely on friends visiting them to pack their bags full of stuff which is hard to get in Costa Rica.

Ordering directly at Amazon or eBay to ship to your Costa Rica home address is very frustrating because you have a 99% chance that you get the message “This item cannot be shippped to this location”. For whatever fucking reason….

Spotted Rooster

Gallo pinto means Spotted Rooster, and it is funny, that this dish comes under more weird names in different countries, like Hoppin’ John  in the Southern United States, Pabellón criollo (a dish with the same ingredients in Venezuela) or Platillo Moros y Cristianos – the Cuban equivalent.