Specialty Coffee Association of Costa Rica (SCACR)
Promoting & Protecting Quality Coffee in Latin America
An association with a 30-year history turns to Oritain's forensic science traceability to build the future of Costa Rican coffee.
Science and Sustainability
Costa Rican coffee leads the way in innovation by partnering with Oritain to promote the unique quality of their beans across the world through the use of forensic science.
Coffee is big business in Costa Rica. The country boasts over 45,000 producers and 239 mills, all helping to produce the beans that make up 20% of world coffee consumption.
The Specialty Coffee Association of Costa Rica (SCACR) is a non-profit association founded in 1993 by a group of local coffee producers, millers, roasters, and exporters, to promote Costa Rican coffee in the international specialty coffee markets.
Through strategic partnerships and alliances, they seek to drive the industry's growth from cultivation to cup.
SCACR are justifiably proud of the quality of their coffee and have always sought to build the value of their product through trust and transparency.
Now seeking to take this to the next level, they have partnered with Oritain to develop a chemical footprint of origin that will differentiate Costa Rican coffee from other coffees anywhere in the world.
This will ensure consumers can be certain of where their Costa Rican coffee comes from, and growers and manufacturers are protected from fraudulent products that could threaten their livelihoods.
“From now on, at any point in the chain, you will be able to take a sample of coffee that claims to be from Costa Rica, and with Oritain verify if it is from Costa Rica or not. This provides protection to our producers that other coffees are not being passed off as Costa Rican coffee, thus protecting their work, their margins, and their investments.”
Noelia Villalobos, Executive Director, SCACR
Traceability like no other
Oritain’s unique methodology applies forensic science and data to detect naturally occurring elements in a product or raw material. Soil composition, climate, altitude and other environmental factors all reveal the details of a product’s origin - which we call an Origin Fingerprint.
Once we’ve created an Origin Fingerprint, it can be used to audit our clients’ products at any point in the supply chain - to clearly differentiate the legitimate from the fraudulent.