Nestlé Grants $3.5 Million to rescue Dying Coffee Industry

Nestlé is spear-heading a program that will target Haitian coffee farmers, who have the natural resources to produce specialty coffees. The corporation is collaborating with the Multilateral Investment Fund (FOMIN), a division of the Inter-American Development Bank, along with L'Agence Française de Développement. The agencies will hand out $3.5 million in grants to re-invigorate Haiti's sagging coffee industry. Statistics cite export coffee production plummeted from 191,000 bags in 1990 to 16,000 bags nearly two decades later.

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The comprehensive program includes best practices for sustainability farming, coffee bean harvesting, sorting, manufacturing processes, quality assurance, fair trade certification, and marketing. The coffee collectives will also learn cost-effective techniques to lower production costs. The program will also assist coffee farmers learn new business skills, including collective procurement of agricultural tools, machinery, and methods of bean roasting.

Nestlé, along with Haiti's National Coffee Institute, will donate coffee bean seedlings and agricultural materials so coffee collectives can replant poor-quality producing crops. Nestlé will also work with the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture to produce visual user guides in Créole for sustainability practices. Nestlé will partner with other successful coffee producers, such as Columbia, to share expertise with Haiti coffee growers.

The FOMIN program will target coffee collectives located in southeast, north, Grand'Anse, and central areas of the country that are best suited to produce specialty coffees. Founded in the early 90s, FOMIN's mission has been to provide subsistence communities the resourses to grow their businesses with materials, tools, training, and foreign market accessibility.

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Read more: Agriculture, Grand'Anse Department, Nestle, Coffee Industry, Coffee, Farmer, FOMIN, Inter-American Development Bank, Agence Française de Développement, North Department, South Department, Agriculture and Food

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