Labour and Coffee Picker Shortage: An Assessment

Across the coffee-producing lands in the world, farms would not be able to grow and process the coffee they do without the assistance of pickers. They are the backbone of the coffee industry: working hard and diligently, climbing slopes, carrying heavy loads, and dealing with gruelling weather to pick the coffee we drink around the world.

Pickers make up between 40 – 60% of the total expense of typical coffee, a significant portion of the costs for a coffee farm owner. These workers are usually paid per kilo or per basket of cherries picked each day, which is typical amongst coffee farms compared to being offered full salaries and health benefits.

Most producing countries rely on manual labour to carefully handpick the ideally ripe cherries. Even Brazil, a country utilizing mechanical harvesters, relies partly on manual labour.

In addition to the current turbulence in the coffee sector, driven primarily by the ongoing market volatility and complex political and logistical challenges, most producing countries are experiencing widespread labour shortages.

In the absence of sufficient pickers and farmworkers, producers are often forced to raise wages to attract local labour or risk unharvested cherries spoiling on the trees which can lead to costly production losses.

While some farms are actively introducing measures to mitigate these challenges, overcoming them remains a significant struggle. To gain deeper insight into these issues, we spoke with key suppliers from various coffee-growing regions around the world.

Mexico

Coffee production in Mexico has gone through its ups and downs in recent years due to low yields, climate change, and labour shortages. One of our key suppliers in Mexico, Guadalupe Zaju, a large farm in Chiapas, notes that there has been a labour shortage, which has been caused by migration and a change in US policies. Daniel Colomo de Leon, the General Manager for the farm, also adds that “agriculture is not an appealing career path to the younger generations, most preferring to work in other industries or in cities for better opportunities, which is leading to fewer people to pick coffee.”

To address these challenges, the Zaju team reviews wages constantly, ensuring that at least minimum living remuneration is achieved while staying competitive. They also provide adequate support, such as appropriate housing, transport, firewood for cooking and daily meal rations on both working and non-working days, so the workers can enjoy balanced and healthy meals.

Taking into account that recreation and enjoyment are important parts of daily life, the farm also has basketball and football courts, where pickers exercise and mingle after a hard day of work.

Large farms in Central America also offer daycare, and primary and secondary schools for the workers’ children, as very often there are families where both parents are pickers, and they have no extended family close by to look after their children. A full-time nurse is also employed, able to assist with any basic medical needs among the staff.

All of this provides a stable and safe place for people to come to work at Guadalupe Zaju, making it an appealing place to work. This will hopefully assist with securing labour in future years.

Guatemala

Countries in Latin America may be experiencing more issues with labour compared to other producing countries throughout the world. This is potentially due to increased migration, and the decreased interest in farm work amongst younger generations. This can lead to farm owners seeking labour from other countries to secure pickers for the harvest.

Guatemala has been experiencing these serious labour shortages in the last five years, specifically because many of the pickers travelling to the United States for better work opportunities. This is forcing farms to increase wages to lure in workers to pick the coffee. Therefore, offering higher wages ensures that no production will be lost. Yet, if wages are increased, then the cost of coffee will also increase. However, this may change with the current political situation in the United States, and Guatemalans may not be able to easily travel to the US for work compared to the past.

Victor Calderon of Finca El Tambor in Valencia notes that “in the past there were always people looking to work in coffee, yet now, there is not.” His farm is located so near the city that people tend to find jobs by the day, leaving at 5am and returning home by 6pm.

Urbanization and development draw younger generations and working age adults from rural communities to cities in search of better economic opportunities, leaving coffee farms with fewer available workers to carry out essential farm activities, a situation common throughout the whole agricultural sector.

Victor tries to secure pickers by providing them with land to grow Guisquil (a squash varietal known throughout Guatemala) and offering space to plant beans intercropped in the coffee. These locals then assist with picking the coffee during the harvest, making it a supportive system for both Victor and his staff.

El Salvador

The El Salvadorian coffee sector has been experiencing somewhat similar problems. Production has been low, making it less appealing for pickers to opt for a job picking coffee due to low return. Also, El Salvador is becoming safer to travel within, which is pushing rural people to venture more into the city for work, searching for higher-paying jobs.

Without essential labour, coffee farms are at risk: less pruning and maintenance can lead to lower yields, and fewer pickers can lead to harvesting challenges. In order to combat this, farm owners are increasing their pay and relying more on older generations to pick, since the quantity of people is limited. On some farms, the average age of pickers can be 40 and older.

In recent years, many people travelled to the United States to work and send money home to their families. These families, in turn, did not work, simply waiting for remittances from relatives abroad, contributing to the coffee farm labour shortage.

Yet, with the change in US politics, the ability to continue this work is less likely. It is unknown if locals will return to farm work or prefer to pursue jobs that are less physically demanding.

One example in El Salvador is at El Carmen, a larger estate, which has reported that labour has been severely depleted. Usually, the farm functions with 45 – 50 people, but currently, they are only working with 20. “People seem to not be wanting to work in agriculture, making it difficult to function at full capacity for some farms in the country” reports El Carmen. Without the necessary labour, farm tasks are neglected, and harvesting may not be done as efficiently.

El Carmen thus offers their employees various benefits to ensure they are taken care of whilst working at the farm. Adequate health assistance to all workers is offered if they get sick or injured on the job. The costs from medical clinics and any medicines needed are covered by El Carmen. Additionally, there is a housing program for fifteen families that work year-round at the farm, and an end-of-the-year party to celebrate and recognize their hard work. Creating this supportive work environment helps keep employees around longer, so farm owners need to find ways to offer more to their employees to maintain a stable workforce.

Costa Rica

Similar labour struggles have been evident in Costa Rica, since borders have been closed in Nicaragua, where labour was typically sourced from. Diego Robelo, General Manager at Aquiares Estate in Turrialba, mentions that since COVID, locating labour for picking has been challenging. Locals do not want to work on the farm or pick coffee, preferring to find jobs with better pay.

Aquiares usually obtained labour from Nicaragua, but since COVID and the political instability in Nicaragua, this is no longer an option. They now rely on workers from Panama, where indigenous peoples from mountain villages take a bus to the border, and another bus meets them to drive them all the way to Aquiares. This long journey is completely funded by Aquiares.

To ensure employees are taken care of, Aquiares provides its pickers a place to sleep, with 500 bunks available for workers and their families. Sleeping pads, boots, a rain jacket, and a basket for picking is also offered upon arrival. Additionally, there is a medical team available at the start of the harvest to check the health of all the pickers, with the added benefit of supplying some basic vaccines to the workers.

There is a medical taxi available to take any of the workers to the nearby hospital in case of an emergency, as well. On top of that, the workers are given a food stipend, and there are two schools available for the children of these workers. Thanks to the efforts of Aquiares and the Costa Rican government, they were able to open a new school to house 100 students via the Casas de La Alegria project. In total, Aquiares can house 170 students ranging in age from one to fifteen. The schools are equipped with teachers and cooks to educate and take care of the children during the day.

Currently, Aquiares is working with one of the largest Costa Rican Banks to explore the possibility of paying pickers directly in Panama, so they don’t have to assume the exchange rate, which often means they lose a little bit of money.

In order to make picking at Aquiares appealing and supportive, they are offering these beautiful benefits to their picking team, making it a sustainable and safe place to work.

Brazil

Thanks to its flat landscapes, Brazil is heavily reliant on mechanized harvesting in most regions. Yet, there have been labour challenges in areas and farms that rely on manual labour, similar to other countries mentioned. Our exporting partner in Brazil, SMC, noted that the younger generation is less interested in accepting agricultural employment, with better opportunities available that offer more livable income. Many people are also reluctant to accept formal employment because it may impact the benefits offered by the government. Thus, mechanized harvesting is the typical option for larger farms in Brazil. This reduces the reliance on manual labour, making harvesting easier without needing to locate workers. This may not be the case for steeper farms in the mountains, or smaller farms that cannot afford harvesting technology.

Adolfo Henrique Vieira Ferreira, owner of Fazenda Passeio in Minas Gerais, a farm that is characterized by its steep slopes and rugged terrain, is unable to fully rely on mechanized harvesting. Each year, it is becoming increasingly challenging for him to find workers to pick his coffee. In order to secure labour, he either has to raise wages, which increases his overall production costs, or operate with a smaller team, which can impact quality and evenness of harvesting. Yet, he prevails, always finding a way to navigate these obstacles to deliver excellent quality coffee.

Colombia

Colombia recently experienced high labour availability, which was thanks to the high market prices. Yet, labour availability has the potential to destabilize due to the urbanization of the country, and movement of rural locals to bigger cities.

Our partner in Colombia, Pergamino, notes that farm owners were able to pay higher wages thanks to the high market prices for coffee this year. Yet, “once the market goes back down, producers will not be able to pay these high wages to pickers” says Pedro Miguel Echavarría, General Manager for Pergamino, and adds that “the farms they work with have been relying less on migrant labour and hiring more locals. Hiring migrant workers can be challenging because of security issues.” This, in conjunction with other reasons such as focus on only the upper parts of the farms, has led Pergamino to drastically reduce their planted area of coffee from 400 hectares when we first started working together some 13 years ago, to 180 hectares currently.

Production has remained stable in Colombia, and there are some labour shortages depending on the area, but nothing notable, yet.

Looking at the long-term, Colombia is becoming more urbanized with more jobs opening in cities and within the hospitality industry that may be more appealing to people living in rural areas. This will lead to the migration of people to cities, leaving coffee farms with less workers or this will push farm owners to offer higher wages to pickers. Not only that, but with more people in Colombia interested in moving to the cities, farms themselves may be abandoned since the younger generations will not want to take over.

Our other exporting partner in Colombia, Green Hills, also reports that farm work is becoming increasingly complex. They usually need 100 people to work, but only 50 people show up. With half the number of people, the work is done more slowly, and with lower quality.

Productivity goes down, and the length of time it takes doubles. Usually, harvest work can last around 50 days with the full 100 people, but with the decrease in workers, this doubles the number of days to work, increasing the costs, creating a negative feedback loop. Same goes for pickers, with scarcities of staff occurring, this forces Green Hills to pay more per kilogram. This has increased competition amongst farms based on who pays the highest and who offers the best benefits (housing, food, bathrooms etc.). And it is only getting worse with young people going to the city looking for jobs requiring less physical effort, time, and dedication. This is not just happening in coffee, but across many agricultural industries in Colombia.

Bolivia

Turning to Bolivia, a country working on increasing their yields, labour is actually quite a supported system amongst farms. Mercanta recently started working with Atoq, a coffee exporter in Bolivia, who mentioned that labour is usually organized within the community, with neighbouring producers helping each other whenever needed, which is enough during the harvest. Yet, for producers with more than five hectares, this can be challenging, which is where hired labour comes in. There have not been any severe difficulties in locating external labour amongst these farms, but the challenge is more to do with pay, since the Bolivian currency has been devalued recently.

In Cochabamba, a smaller coffee-producing area in Bolivia, the need for labour is slightly different. A similar situation with a reliance on neighbours for help with picking, yet there are other crops that are also cultivated, making it difficult to keep up with the coffee harvest. External labour is scarce for coffee picking, especially because the area is close to Chapare, where illegal coca cultivation offers higher wages compared to coffee or other traditional agriculture.

Bolivia is still small-scale in some areas, making the relationship between farm owners and pickers not too strong. Aside from neighbours, paid workers are temporary and not too reliable. Perhaps in the future, once coffee gains more prominence, farm owners can grow and hire more permanent labour, offering insurance and social security.

Rwanda

Farms in East Africa are primarily smallholder farms relying on family labour. Therefore, the current labour situation may differ slightly from other regions.

For example, farms associated with Dukunde Kawa Musasa Cooperative in Rwanda experienced record-high yields and significant price increases. According to Ernest Nshimyimana, Managing Director of the Cooperative, farmers maximized production and income this year. Therefore, there were no labour shortages and no crop loss. Typically, farmers rely on household labour but also hire additional workers for harvesting and to deliver the coffee to collection sites. Smallholder farmers dominate the coffee sector, each maintaining an average of 600 trees and 0.17 hectares of land per farmer, with a productivity of 3.6 kg per tree. Thanks to the strength of coffee in Rwanda, there are no shortages for coffee labour, and wages in remote areas remain low, with much of the population engaged in agriculture.

Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, farms are run in a similar fashion, with smallholders growing and picking their own coffee, then delivering it to local washing stations. Daye Bensa, our partner in Ethiopia, works with many producers and runs larger farms in Sidama. They mention that, actually, locals preferred to pick coffee rather than work at the washing stations as the pay is higher. This thus resulted in a shortage of workers at washing stations.

Labour shortages in coffee farming are rooted in a complex web of unattractive wages, harsh conditions, rural depopulation, social stigma, and shifting migration patterns—each amplified differently depending on region and the maturity of local coffee sectors. All around the coffee-producing areas in the world, migration and violence tear at the workforce, populations wrestle with climate shocks and new generations drift away from agriculture. Even the most advanced farms, armed with resources and structure, are not immune to these pressures. As countries become more urbanized and cities promise brighter prospects than farm labour, the coffee industry faces a pivotal crossroad: to survive and thrive, farm owners must reimagine farm work as an appealing, dignified livelihood—offering not just higher wages, but supportive benefits like housing, healthcare, and educational opportunities. Yet, for smaller producers and rural communities, this may seem like an impossible climb. The true test ahead is whether the coffee world can inspire young people to see value in agricultural work and rally around collective investment and innovation—because coffee’s resilience cannot be taken for granted, and its future now hangs in the balance.