Machine harvested coffee cherries are delivered to the processing plant in tip-trailers pulled by tractors from the fields. The mechanical harvesters use hundreds of flexible vibrating rods, which slowly turn as they pass down the hedgerows. These rods pass within the branches slowly tickling the ripe coffee cherry off the stems of the trees.

Green or unripe coffee cherries are generally not removed from this process as they still have a stronger bond with the branches, where they are left to ripen, and to be harvested by another harvest pass later in the season. Conveyor belts inside the harvester deliver the coffee cherries into an onboard holding bin, which empties into a trailer or via an auger drive directly into a following trailer. It is these trailer bins that are constantly ferried back to the processing plant, from across the plantation.