Rodrigo Vargas: Updating Tradition

Lidiette Brenes
lbrenes@nacion.com

(Photo: Jorge Castillo /La Nación).

The coffee is processed in a mill 94 years old and it is sold on the Internet to the most sophisticated markets in the world.

Caramba! It is not just any producer that achieves so much, during a global crisis, when today one is a millionaire and tomorrow money must be borrowed to pay for farm hands.

Three generations were needed to gain full knowledge of the activity, to be able to deliver first class coffee from seed to cup,

So is the opinion of Rodrigo Vargas Ruiz, administrative manager of Beneficiadora Santa Eduviges (Santa Eduviges Coffee Mill), who does not hide his satisfaction for what his company has achieved.

Nor does he deny the pride that his grandfather, Clarindo, inspires in him, and his father, Norman, both founders of the company.

Today's success is due to a continuous process of improvement that began in 1930 with two hectares of coffee that his grandfather purchased.

Don Norman acquired more plantations and he added the touch of 'the latest' in order to place them in the digital era, with the full reach that businesses have today.

Rodrigo is 48 years old, as many as he has spent smelling coffee. That is why he became an agricultural engineer, because he had farming in his genes, and because he crawled on all fours as a toddler in the coffee fields.

He still bends over with interest - as if it were for the first time - to show the newly germinated seed. Then he goes to the plants that are almost ready for transplantation and then walks some steps to show the fully adult coffee trees.

Everything here is top quality, because the world market requires it to be that way and the basic laws of survival.

The producer who does not modernize dies, or at least their coffee plantation does.

The coffee sold to the traditional local market is battered by low market prices. That is how the owner becomes disillusioned and abandons his crops, so thinks Rodrigo.

It is also a family matter to be able to read the future from the residue of, not a cup of tea as the Chinese do, but from a cup of coffee.

His grandfather thought of breaking the resale chain that existed, in which the producer handed over their crop to a mill and only waited for payment. Don Clarindo decided to have his own mill.

His father Norman expanded the process and bought the Doka mill, which was established in 1824, and which, although still in use, was declared a site of National Heritage.

Rodrigo evaluated the possibilities and he was able to see that, in order to avoid the crisis, high quality coffee was the answer. He also studied the market carefully and thoroughly, assisted all world conferences and read about the topic.

The result of three generations of entrepreneurs are five registered brands of coffee. Some of them, such as Doka Premium, famous worldwide. There are also various international awards that recognize a coffee that is processed where it is grown.

Rodrigo climbs to a high point to look at the greenery of 1,400 hectares, in San Luis de Sabanilla de Alajuela, that belong to the six-brother family.

He stands on the center of his feet, with the soles firmly placed on the soil, with his heels firm, which implies that his ancestors are important, but with his feet pointing forward, with total confidence knowing that his children and nephews will continue the project. The 4,300 workers employed during picking season will thank him.

from LA NACION May 17, 2004

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