Gated Communities are Eating Panamanian Coffee

I toured the Café Ruiz coffee plantation in Boquete, in the Chiriqui province of Panama.  The three-hour tour promises so much information about coffee growing and the coffee business that when you will finish, you will come away with a PhD in coffee.  Just about.  It’s a very informative tour of the fields, the sorting, drying and packaging areas and everything in between.  Panamanian coffee is highly regarded for its high quality and superb taste developed from growing in the cloud forest. Coffee plants love the climate in the cloud forest around Boquete. Unfortunately, so do retirees from the United States, who are buying up coffee plantations as land developers offer a relative fortune to the generations-old businesses.  Irresistibly tempted by the prospects of a cash windfall that dwarfs potential revenues from the coffee businesses, the farm owners sell their lands to housing builders.  Café Ruiz is a holdout, but its customer base shrinks, as the coffee production from nearby farms needing processing gives way to gated communities populated with retirees from North America. Our coffee education from Café Ruiz didn’t sugar-coat the reality of what Boquete’s popularity as a tourist destination means for the coffee business. However, Panama’s well-earned reputation for outstanding coffee means that its boutique status is growing even more rarified. 

Coffee Beans, Farms Slowly Giving Way to Gated Communities

Coffee Beans Drying in the Sun