Beneficio Rio Negro
Hacienda Rio Negro, Costa Rica
Located at the bottom of the valley at an altitude of 3,600 ft, Beneficio Rio Negro is a state-of-the-art mill, combining traditional and modern technologies.
Powered by clean energy, the mill runs an on-site 200kw hydroelectric generator.
Beneficio Rio Negro is a water conserving mill – using only a fraction of the water used by traditional mills. We also treat any water used at both mills through our sedimentation ponds before returning it to the water supply.
Low water use demucilagers are used for depulping and processing prior to washing.
We operate specially designed Bio Mass Furnaces at Beneficio Rio Los Santos and Beneficio Rio Negro to dry coffee. This eliminates the need to cut wood for fuel. In addition, we dry pulp naturally and use it as fuel for our ovens.
In 1997, Distant Lands Coffee was awarded the Bandera Blanca by the government of Costa Rica in recognition for our contribution to ecologically sustainable coffee processing, and the President of Costa Rica honored the mill for helping Costa Rican coffee farmers
In 2001, Beneficio Rio Negro was Chain of Custody certified to sell coffee from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms.