Depending on elevation and latitude, the coffee harvest season usually starts around September and lasts through March. Ripe berries turn from green to a bright red color, signaling that they are ready to be picked.
Harvesting is usually carried out by large numbers of migrant workers who typically come from "worse-off" places with the hope of getting work. In Costa Rica, for example, many of the coffee pickers migrate down from Nicaragua or migrate up from Panama (such as Indian tribal groups like the Guaymí Indians). These migrant workers return home every year after the harvest season is over.
Coffee picking is often a family project. Husband, wife, and children of migrant families commonly all share in the work. Pickers are paid by the coffee grower for each cajuela (a dry measure that is equal to about 20 kilos or 44 pounds) of berries they harvest. In many places in the world a family of pickers will be paid only a few dollars for an entire day of work. It's important for the consumer to buy only coffee that has been harvested by workers who are paid a just wage (fair-trade coffees are a good example of this).
One coffee tree annually produces about one pound of green coffee.
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