Ask not what your Haitian cup of coffee can do for you, but what it did for those before you.

Ask not what your morning cup of coffee can do for you, but what it did for those before you. Coffee takes a long journey from a small seed harvested by hand, across an ocean, grilled and packed, ground and boiled before it finally tickles your senses and ignites your brain cells.  As the second largest commodity in the world, these tiny beans impact, and are impacted by, hundreds of thousands of people.

The resuts of our Indiegogo campaign.  Thank you all for your help!

  Who are these people?  I have been fortunate enough to be able to work side by side and get to know the coffee farmers of Haiti especially in Northern Haiti.  While we just recently started focusing on coffee education, we have had relationships with many of the farmers through our work in rabbit production and beekeeping. Who is we? We, is an association of Haitian agricultural entrepreneurs called Makouti Agro Entreprise and Haiti Coffee.  I have been volunteering as a consultant for them for 7 years.  3 Years ago we started importing coffee to the US to help the farmers and now we are educating them about modern techniques in coffee and helping to rebuild the industry

Benito Jasmin of Makouti and Partners of the Americas discussing the importance of Quality Assurance in building  relationships with international buyers

 These are grassroots efforts driven by the farmers and cooperatives themselves.  Our job at Haiti Coffee is to lend a hand, help identify choices, seek out opportunities, refine strategies, access information and facilitate the process desired by the Haitian coffee farmers themselves.  They are the force behind the change.  They want to produce the best quality coffee and share it with the world, but they also want to earn a decent living and have a sense of security for their families.

 

Producers identifying next steps on the road to rebuilding a better future for coffee and coffee farmers

 

Being a farmer is a challenging profession. We feed the world, yet most farmers struggle financially. Incomes are dependent on weather, genetics, disease problems, fluctuating markets, supply and demand, and a desire to produce a good product.

Identifying diseases that are impacting coffee production around the world.  New research is needed to get ahead of these problems exacerbated by climate change

Coffee producers have an even harder time since most of them live in developing countries with high poverty levels. While we think paying $2-3 for a cup of coffee is normal, farmers only get a tiny piece of that cup. CRS estimated (2009) Haitian cost of production for coffee to be between $0.42-0.63 per pound. Farmers are currently getting about $0.77-$1.07 per pound of green, leaving a profit of $0.13- 0.65 per pound of green coffee.  One pound of green coffee beans becomes approximately 12 ounces of French roast which in turn makes about 25-32 cups of coffee (~10 oz). That works out to about 2-4 cents a cup of Haitian coffee. Yikes !

Meeting the needs of humans and keeping the balance of nature is going to be an ongoing challenge everywhere.  Haiti is just an example of serious global problems.  If we can fix them here in Haiti, we have a chance of making the world a better place everywhere.

What about the profits of a cooperative that processes washed coffee?  CRS estimated the costs of washed coffee in 2009 to be $3.13-$5.00 per pound.   Fairtrade prices for a pound of coffee are generally less than $1.50 per pound. Haitian coffee sells for $ 3-5.00 per pound meaning they may not be making any profits. A current study of cost of production and processing Haitian is very much needed, but is difficult to ascertain because records are not kept. Even at this rate cooperatives are only getting 9 – 20 cents a cup of Haitian coffee.

  

Even at $11- 15 a bag of roasted coffee, a cup of coffee, made at home, costs less than 45- 60 cents

Katyana Andre and Benito Jasmin, interviewing coffee producers to indentify strategies for next steps to take

The Haitian cooperatives want to be able to dialog with American buyers, but don’t know how. Currently most of them only use cell phones as a means of communication.  They don’t have any marketing tools or experience.  It is a challenging step to take considering that they rarely have access to electricity. Quality assurance is another issue.  Coffee labs are nearly impossible to access and qualified cuppers don’t exist. There is no common standard making it hard to teach. Haiti Coffee, Makouti and Partners of the Americas are joining forces to introduce SCAA guidelines and testing samples to help cooperatives have a reference point on their quality.  They are eagerly learning what they can do to increase quality and quantity so that they might enter once again the international coffee market

These fragile hills produce incredible coffee and the coffee trees help control erosion and give the forest more economic value as living trees. They are always a machete away from becoming charcoal.

  The sad reality is that if we can’t manage to give coffee farmers a larger portion of the profits for quality coffee. They will replace the trees with more profitable crops like soy, corn, beans, etc. until erosion washes away the hillsides.

    

Frisnel, our chauffeur.  One must never forget to be nice to the driver.

Luckily there are a great many people interested in helping to rebuild the Haitian coffee industry, both in and outside of Haiti.  It will take dedicated work to make it happen and lots of patience. Jean Jacques Lucas is one of those people working with Makouti Agro Entreprise and Haiti Coffee.

Agriculture is my life !

 Enjoy that cup of coffee and remember that every time you buy coffee, your vote counts.

 

The Haitian farmer's idea of a selfie :)