The company had trained 250 farmers at a cost of $1,000 per annul. To supplement its revenue in the
initial years, Bolaven Farms also traded in coffee beans sourced from nearby farms. In its first year of
operations, it purchased 140 tons of green coffee beans at a price of $2,400 per ton (a 35 per cent
premium over the market price) for sale in the export market. But sales remained challenging because of
little brand recognition. As a result, the firm was re-positioning itself as a private-label supplier to food service
establishments. Management now believed that roughly 90 hectares of land were needed to
achieve sufficient scale to become profitable in its core coffee business.