Coffee: once again made in Haiti
After years of neglect, Haiti's coffee industry is getting back on its feet.
Decades of political chaos crippled Haiti's coffee production, reports the Miami Herald, but increasing global coffee consumption and supply problems elsewhere are helping revive the industry.
The Herald has more. Here are a few highlights from the story:
- Quality beans from Gwo Chwal, known for producing one of Haiti’s best coffee beans, once sold for $.30 a pound. Today, Japanese roasters are buying it for $5.50.
- A small coffee collective, Café COCANO, is expecting to double exports of its organically grown coffee – already available on the internet and in Italian espresso shops – to high end South Florida grocers.
- Earlier this year, the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund provided $1 million to Root Capital, a non-profit social investment fund focusing on rural businesses in developing nations, to help boost small businesses in Haiti. One of its first loans, $150,000, went to COOPCAB, the Thiotte coffee growers. The money since has been paid back with interest.
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