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  • The DSC18, which increases harvested volume on average by 50%, is the first selective coffee harvesting machine in the world, especially adapted to Colombian coffee farming conditions.

Chinchiná, November 22, 2018 (FNC Press Office) – The result of years of study and rigorous tests and trials in different coffee regions, the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC), through its R&D arm Cenicafé, officially launched today the Brudden DSC-18 harvesting machine.

The device, which substantially increases coffee harvesting, was launched before a group of over 300 coffee growers coming from across the country.

This technological development by the National Coffee Research Center (Cenicafé), a milestone in the coffee sector worldwide, is the result of the FNC’s tireless work to reduce harvesting costs, require less labor and thus improve producers’ profitability.

According to preliminary calculations and rigorous measurements, including time optimization, the Brudden DSC-18 harvesting machine helps collect on average 50% more coffee than the traditional method of “cocos” (round containers), with lower costs per kilogram of coffee cherries harvested. This increase varies depending on the operator’s skills.

Requiring less labor is a great benefit for coffee producers, taking into account recent labor shortages.

With the meshes on the ground also recently launched, these innovative harvesting methods (put by Cenicafé at the service of coffee producers) require new practices and work culture to make the most of them, including delaying harvesting days and pickers working as a team.

R&D at the service of producers

The Brudden DSC-18 harvesting machine is the result of joint work of the Cenicafé scientific team, especially from the post-harvest discipline (dedicated for years to optimizing harvesting methods), and Brazil’s Brudden company, with over 35 years of experience in production of cutting-edge agricultural equipment.

In the last two years, Cenicafé and Brudden researchers and workers devoted hours of work, trial and error, and adaptations to Colombian topography and Arabica coffee tree physiology for delivering an optimum device that will reduce coffee production costs, labor being the most important.

The price of the new equipment is about COP 1.6 million (USD 500) and it will initially be sold at the Agrocafé chain. Taking into account its lifecycle, labor savings and lower harvesting costs will fully compensate coffee growers’ initial investments.

Meshes on the ground and DSC-18 increase volumes

For reducing production costs and increasing coffee growers’ profitability, in August the FNC launched another innovation developed by Cenicafé: the meshes on the ground, which increase harvesting by 23% to 45%.

In traditional coffee farming, the most used tool to handpick coffee has been “cocos” (round containers), but labor shortages and the need to improve producers’ profitability led Cenicafé to orient its research to this direction.