Production sector
Coffee
Coffee in Mexico and across much of Latin America is high-altitude arabica, grown under shade on hillsides and picked by hand through selective harvesting: pickers go over the same tree several times, taking only ripe cherry. Processing follows and largely defines final quality — washed, with pulping and fermentation, natural or honey — and then drying, dry milling, cupping and roasting. It is a long chain in which price is referenced to the international exchange, and cup quality and traceability are what make the difference.
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The most sought-after field role is the technician or extension agent who works alongside growers on farm renovation, shade management and control of leaf rust and coffee berry borer, problems that are not solved once but every cycle. Wet mills and buying stations hire plant supervisors, drying operators and quality control staff, and the certified cupper — Q grader — is a clearly in-demand role, because each lot's price depends on that evaluation. Certifications such as organic, fair trade and Rainforest, plus the newer traceability and deforestation-free requirements for entering Europe, created another function: the person who documents origin plot by plot and carries the audit. At the far end of the chain sit roasters, green coffee buyers and cooperative managers; much of the sector's formal employment lives in cooperatives, exporters and roasteries rather than on large estates.
Where it is concentrated
In Mexico, production is concentrated in Chiapas — Soconusco and the Sierra Madre — Veracruz — Coatepec, Huatusco and Córdoba — plus Oaxaca, Puebla and Guerrero, with presence as well in Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí, Nayarit, Jalisco and Colima. Harvest runs from late fall into early spring and shifts with altitude, so picking is organized with seasonal crews that move between regions and sometimes across borders; it is work on steep slopes, poor roads and humid weather. Elsewhere in the region, Colombia harvests nearly year-round with a main crop and a fly crop, or mitaca; Brazil concentrates a mechanizable harvest at mid-year in Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Espírito Santo; and Central America, Peru and Ecuador follow calendars close to Mexico's.
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