Dominican Republic celebrates coffee heritage at FESTICAFE 2024

Barahona, DR.- Hecmilio Galván, director of the Dominican Republic’s Special Fund for Agricultural Development (FEDA), highlighted the country’s historical significance in coffee production at FESTICAFE 2024 in Polo, Barahona. Once the world’s top coffee producer, the Dominican Republic also played a foundational role in Latin American coffee cultivation, making coffee deeply intertwined with its cultural and historical identity. Galván, joined by Colombian historian César Echeverry, emphasized leveraging this heritage to promote tourism and sustain the environmental, cultural, and economic contributions of the coffee industry.

The festival, celebrating over 20 years of Dominican coffee harvests, included 10+ activities under the Larimar Route, aiming to support coffee farmers in remote areas by providing training, tools, and 5,000 sour orange seedlings as part of FEDA’s Saving the Mountains Plan. Through these efforts, FEDA seeks to diversify local agriculture while empowering the rural workforce. More than 500 people attended training on sustainable coffee practices, branding, and agricultural entrepreneurship, while over 1,000 agricultural tools were distributed to producers in Polo, El Narajal, and Arrollo Arriba.