More than RD$6 billion at risk due to the loss of the largest coffee harvest

Coffee growers in the southern region are demanding that the Government provide an emergency alternative in the face of the real threat of losing the Dominican Republic’s largest and best coffee harvest in the last 10 years.

This year’s estimated harvest is expected to exceed 300,000 quintals of coffee for the first time in a decade. Producers indicate that the harvest in the southern region alone is expected to exceed 120,000 quintals.

The increase in domestic production coincides with the highest price for coffee on the world market in 50 years. Yesterday, local purchasing companies were paying 21,500 pesos per 100-pound quintal.
A coffee harvest exceeding 300,000 quintals at current prices means that more than 6 billion pesos will circulate in the most deprived areas of the country.

The loss of that harvest would mean not only the impoverishment of domestic producers but also an increase in grain imports from other producing countries, as well as the need to search for foreign currency to fund those imports. The equation is simple: instead of adding 6 billion pesos among producers, seek 100 million dollars to import the same amount; if half the harvest is lost, divide the numbers in the same proportion.

This year, when producers hoped to overcome the shortcomings of years of accumulated losses, there were no harvesters available because there are no longer Dominican or Haitian harvesters.

National production has been declining since 2012. Starting in 2013, when just 300,000 quintals were produced, production continued to decline until the most critical year, 2016, when only 86,000 quintals were produced.

Every pound of coffee that falls from the plant means 21 pesos that the farmer will not receive. The early arrival of the October rains, which typically occur during mid-harvest, has exacerbated the situation, and neither the Coffee Institute nor the Ministry of Agriculture is offering any assistance.