diff --git a/Project.toml b/Project.toml
index c7f5e43..59821d8 100644
--- a/Project.toml
+++ b/Project.toml
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ authors = ["Dimitri Lozeve <dimitri@lozeve.com>"]
 version = "0.1.0"
 
 [deps]
+CSV = "336ed68f-0bac-5ca0-87d4-7b16caf5d00b"
 Logging = "56ddb016-857b-54e1-b83d-db4d58db5568"
 
 [compat]
diff --git a/src/GardenOptim.jl b/src/GardenOptim.jl
index c880dcf..c1d4f1f 100644
--- a/src/GardenOptim.jl
+++ b/src/GardenOptim.jl
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 module GardenOptim
 
+using CSV
 using Logging
 
 export update!
@@ -46,5 +47,13 @@ function update!(grid::Array{Int, 2}, costs::Array{Float64, 2}, beta::Float64 =
     grid
 end
 
+function loadcosts()
+    df = CSV.read("data/costs.csv")
+    df = coalesce.(df, 0)  # replace missing values by 0
+    costs = convert(Matrix, df[:, 2:end])
+    @debug "cost matrix of size $(size(costs))"
+    # ensure the matrix is symmetric: keep the max of itself and its transpose
+    costs = max.(costs, permutedims(costs))
+end
 
 end # module