The history of Beneficiadora Santa Eduviges

Coffee: more than a beverage, a way of life

In 1929, the year of the Great Depression, every businessman finds his sales reduced. Don Clarindo Vargas , a small Costa Rican businessman from San Isidro of Sabanilla, Central canton of Alajuela, decides to sell his small local store, foreseeing the commercial disaster that was approaching. After selling his business, he acquires a small dairy farm in Fraijanes, in Alajuela.

Twenty years later he changed it for a coffee plantation of four manzanas (2.8 hectares) in El Rodeo, in San Isidro, Alajuela, and without even knowing anything about growing coffee, he initiates a great tradition, the growing of our prized coffee.

Thirty years passed for him to see the benefits. In 1959 his son founds the Santa Eduviges Plantation, and with the help of his six children and his grandchildren at the head of 200 fixed employees and 3000 temporary employees during harvest time, they work an area of 2000 manzanas of planted coffee, the equivalent of 1600 hectares of land.

Santa Eduviges, its commercial name, arises from the deep devotion of the Vargas family for Saint Eduviges, the saint who provides shelter and food to families that don't have any. The company logo represents the letter"V" , the capital letter of their last name and is formed by two coffee leaves that hold the heart of a family tradition: the golden grain.

Today it is developing in the areas of production, recollection, roasting, export, investigation, projection, tourism and other areas that are in charge of maintaining and improving the quality of the coffee. The main objective of this company is producing coffee of the highest quality according to the balance between the soil and the environment.