Monday 15 December 2008, San José, Costa
Rica
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC:
A Place for Eco-Coffee
By Valeria Vilardo*
LOS CACAOS, Dominican
Republic - Communities
in 10 southern provinces
of the Dominican
Republic are feeling the
benefits from the
collective activities of
small growers of organic
coffee. Women
participate in the
production and sale of
the coffee, and their
sons and daughters are
pursuing studies in
order to improve the
sector's productivity.
The lives of 10 percent
of the Dominican
population revolve
around coffee. And for
700,000 people the crop
is their livelihood and
only source of income.
But the coffee
plantations have not
brought prosperity to
most.
According to the
Dominican Institute of
Agricultural and
Forestry Research, 78
percent of the
coffee-growing
operations are small,
with farms ranging from
one to 50 hectares in
size.
The Central Bank reports
that in 2007 the country
exported 90,880 quintals
(one quintal is 100
kilos) of organic
coffee, at a unit price
of 35 dollars wholesale
on the New York Stock
Exchange.
The coffee plantations
are found in the
mountainous areas of
this Caribbean nation,
where poverty is also
the most severe.
According to the United
Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), 74
percent of the
population in the
country’s mountainous
areas is poor. Per
capita income among
small coffee growers is
just 80 cents on the
dollar per day, which
puts them well below the
poverty line.
In recent years,
conditions on the
international markets
and pest problems have
forced many Dominican
growers to emigrate or
replace their coffee
plants with shorter
cycle crops.
According to the
governmental Dominican
Coffee Council, around
25,000 families have
left coffee production
in the past 20 years and
have moved away from
their land in search of
better living
conditions.
Faced with these
challenges, the
Federation of Coffee
Growers of the Southern
Region (Fedecares) is
working to represent the
small and medium
producers in 10
provinces.
Made up of 7,500 coffee
growers in 215
associations, Fedecares
grows 10 to 12 percent
of the country's total
output.
The small growers of the
south and the north
together produce 30
percent of the nation's
coffee.
Fedecares collects green
coffee (selected and
shelled before toasting)
to be sold largely to
markets in Canada,
France, Spain, and the
United States.
"All of the production
of our coffee is part of
fare trade initiatives.
Ninety percent of our
output is organic and
environmentally
friendly," because it
does not use synthetic
chemical products for
fertiliser or
pesticides, Fedecares
leader Refino Herrera
told Tierramérica.
The members of the
federation produced
between 20,000 and
25,000 quintals of
coffee in 2008. The
minimum wage in the
sector -- for men and
women alike -- is still
low: equivalent to 185
dollars a month.
Improving their living
conditions involves
educational efforts.
Fedecares created a
scholarship programme
financed by Dominican
and Cuban universities
to promote university
attendance by children
from coffee-growing
areas, and especially
from the lowest income
families.
In 2007, 10 scholarships
were awarded for study
in either of the two
countries. Twenty-five
percent of the
scholarship recipients
work in the coffee
sector and in rural
development.
"This scholarship has
been extremely
important, not only for
my education and
insertion in the labour
market, but also because
I'm using my knowledge
to promote the
development of my
community," said
Cesarina Encarnación,
commercial manager for
Agroesa, a coffee
company in Las Cacaos,
70 kilometres from Santo
Domingo.
To provide incentives
for best practices, the
federation launched an
annual contest for fair
trade, aimed at small
coffee growers. The
prize includes a cash
award in addition to the
portion corresponding to
each grower for export
sales.
"That money doesn't go
to the producer who
wins, but rather is used
for social programmes
and the development of
the community, in areas
like infrastructure,
education and health,"
Juan Lugo Franco, who
has been working in the
coffee sector since the
age of 13, told
Tierramérica.
"We have monthly
meetings in Fedecares
where we are informed of
how the market is going.
The men and women in
these meetings decide
the policies that we are
going to implement,"
said Franco.
Women are playing a more
active role in coffee
production and sales.
"We have trained 40
families so that there
would be an equal
distribution of land
among men and women,"
Viviana Martes Lorenzo,
a member of the
Association of Women in
Action (AMA), told
Tierramérica.
"When we began with AMA,
we decided to try to get
our spouses to give us
part of the land. We
talked to them to
explain that if we
worked together we would
have more income," said
Felicia Lorenzo, a
53-year-old coffee
plantation owner.
"Since I have had my
land to manage, I am
more independent and I
feel that my work is
more recognised," said
the mother of eight. The
AMA works with Fedecares
to foment and empower
women-led coffee
projects.
So far, 50 women own
their land under the
programme, and 25 are
participating in a
women-focused initiative
in the southern areas of
Los Cacaos, Barahona,
Polo and San Cristóbal.
"One of the biggest
results of our effort is
the empowerment of
women. Previously, women
did not manage the
resources. Now they have
the opportunity to
manage their work and
administer their
incomes," Herrera told
Tierramérica.
The coffee exports of
nine of the leading
coffee producing
countries of Latin
America, aside from
Brazil, grew an average
of 3.8 percent by the
end of the
coffee-growing year
(October 2007 to
September 2008),
according to Guatemala's
National Coffee
Association.
Costa Rica, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras,
Nicaragua, Colombia,
Mexico, Peru and the
Dominican Republic
exported 29.3 million
60-kilo sacks of coffee
in that period,
surpassing the previous
year’s exports by nearly
four percent.
(*This story was
originally published by
Latin American
newspapers that are part
of the Tierramérica
network. Tierramérica is
a specialised news
service produced by IPS
with the backing of the
United Nations
Development Programme,
United Nations
Environment Programme
and the World Bank.) |
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