La Angostura - CR25034

The sisters, Arleen and Maria at La Angostura joined forces with their dad 7 years ago to help grow the family’s business.

As one of the first producers to start a mill in the region, Don Mario, father of Arleen and Maria, invested his “pure sweat” (borrowing his words) to start the Beneficio La Angostura. He believed in coffee’s power to lift his family economically and it did for a while.

The sisters then joined a few years ago to help their family combat the challenges that they were facing with the farming business back then - low market prices, continually growing costs of production, and lack of support from the local coffee industry. Arleen says that she has noticed that her dad was very stretched - as a producer, miller, and also expected to network, market, and sell their product to sustain the business.

Maria and Arleen share with us that one of the biggest challenges for them is to predict how much they can sell to whom, each year.

Amidst the challenges, they are two of the most enthusiastic participants in our training sessions. They come with a lot of questions for each training session.

Maria tells us that while she has been running the mill with her sister with the support of her dad who has been a lifelong producer, it is important that she also gets second/third opinion on their practices. “It’s not that I don’t trust my dad (laughs), I just think there’s a value in continuously learning and updating your knowledge,” says Maria.

These two girls with lots of innovative ideas and energy are ready to take their farm and mill to another level and we are so excited to accompany and witness them along with you all!