Coffee

Production Area
The coffee-growing area that Just Haiti is initially focusing on is in the mountains around the headwaters of the Baradères river.

On the map, you can follow the river upstream (south) to its headwaters high above the tiny riverside settlement of Tête d'Eau, one of the coffee growing communities. Others are nearby, such as Vincendron, Leclerc, Maplate and Fond Tortue. These coffee-growing communities are within an area of roughly 80 square kilometers (30 square miles). The solid red line on this map is the region's only through road.

Total coffee produced in the area is unknown, but area growers have indicated that under the right market conditions—forming an association capable of export sales—they could produce about six times more than at present. Two coffee varieties are grown, based on elevation.

Brokers from Baradères and elsewhere in the country purchased most of the growers' coffee crop until about 1986. Today, growers produce and sell coffee primarily to local residents—for barter as well as cash.

An expansion of shade-grown organic coffee production in Baradères —through development of an export market—could anchor a sustainable economy not just for the growers but the entire community.

Production and Processing
During a preliminary meeting with Just Haiti cofounders in 2006, two growers, Juslhomme Aurace and Petuel Bruce, described for us the traditional method of growing and processing coffee. The plants are grown in moist soil in plenty of shade—mango, avocado, guava, grapefruit, orange, sour orange, pine and so on.

We asked the two farmers if they understood that their methods—by keeping big trees alive on the land—help protect people and the environment downstream. Petuel's response: "In my community we don't know anything about charcoal."

The growers use no chemicals or machines in any phase of coffee production and processing. They plant, weed, harvest and process the crop by hand.

They pick the coffee cherries (Creole seriz, French cerises) when they are fully red and ripe, and put the harvest into a water tank. The bad seriz float and are discarded.

After the floating, the growers thoroughly dry the good cherries on cement patios, producing what the Haitians call kafe an krok. In this state the coffee can be stored for several months.

For coffee that will not be stored, growers use hand tools—a sort of mortar and pestle affair—to gently knock off the pulp and remove the husk in a single step.

Then they manually sort and clean the husked, ready-to-roast green beans. For this they first use a circular mat made of palm leaves to remove bits of chaff and husk, then they spread the beans out and manually pick out the remaining bad beans. The green ready-to-roast beans are called kafe pile.

After Just Haiti established the revolving loan fund in 2009, the growers were able to finance the establishment of wet milling methods. This is making processing more efficent and should significantly increase the earning potential of the farmers' labor.

Just Haiti works to alleviate poverty, hunger, violence, illiteracy and disease in Haiti by fostering small-business development, education programs, employment opportunity, infrastructure improvement and environmental quality. Just Haiti is a Section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization.

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