This year, however, even some of the earthworms would have to go hungry. The 23,000 trees on Trujillo’s farm had produced less than 1,000 kilos of beans this past harvesting season, a record low. While local buyers are paying record prices for the unusually scarce supply of coffee, Trujillo knows that farmers and laborers will benefit little from the bonanza. And the shortfall is causing him to question whether Colombia’s manual laborers – who hand-pick the crop berry by berry – are in need of a technological upgrade. “Coffee producers are always the ones who invest the most,” he said. “But then benefit the least. More farmers are asking whether there are other ways to make the harvesting more efficient.” International coffee prices are reaching record highs in 2009, and it is unlikely that local farmers like Trujillo will reap any of the profits. And with Colombian coffee inventories at their lowest level in history, producers there are increasingly wondering whether the age-old, traditional technique of hand-picking the berries one by one must be replaced with newer technology – or else disappear completely. Read more here. Semana International delivers news about Colombia in English. Find more in our home.