El Salvador Perspectives

A select group of people is getting very rich in today's El Salvador ruled by Nayib Bukele.  Using tourism development funds and tax policy measures, the Bukele government is allowing an assortment of real estate developers, crypto-investors, and the Bukele family to acquire significant real estate holdings and wealth.   Such policy measures were on display again on February 20 when El Salvador's Legislative Assembly convened without proposals on its agenda.  Then the Nuevas Ideas-controlled body voted to suspend the rules to vote on a new development loan .  Without prior sharing of the underlying documentation, the Assembly voted to approve borrowing $114 million dollars for highway and infrastructure projects for Surf City 1.  "Surf City" is the branding for tourism development along El Salvador's Pacific coast, with phase 1 rolled out from Puerto La Libertad to El Zonte, also known as "Bitcoin Beach." The area which will be benefitted by this new loa...

The coffee harvest is underway on the volcanic mountain slopes of El Salvador.  And for the coffee sector in El Salvador, there was some good news as world coffee prices have rebounded recently.  Coffee prices have jumped some 25% in recent weeks as smaller world supplies are forecast because of poor harvests in Honduras and elsewhere. The price increase represents a little bit of good news for the coffee industry in El Salvador which has been struggling in recent years.   Coffee exports from the country have declined by half over the past 10 years. Another factor challenging coffee farmers is extortion by the country's street gangs. Coffee farmers must pay protection payments to the gangs, or employ armed security to protect the harvest. It is a battle between coffee farmers and gangsters which can turn deadly. This year, the government rolled out a public security plan for the coffee harvest.  The government plans to send 3300 police agents and soldie...

Cultivation of coffee has played an important role in the history of  El Salvador.  It was a source of great wealth for the country's landed elites during much of the twentieth century and the country's leading export crop.   But today the industry is falling on increasingly hard times.  A London-based coffee buyer, Mercanta, described the history of the Salvadoran coffee industry: El Salvador is the smallest of the Central American nations, but don’t let its diminutive size fool you. It produces exceptional coffees to a consistently high standard. Mercanta regularly buys selected single varietals such as Orange/Pink Bourbon, Red Bourbon and Pacamara, and has strong, long-term relationships with many producers and mills in this small, coffee powerhouse.  The history of coffee in El Salvador is inextricably linked to the development of the nation, itself. Introduced in the late 1880’s, coffee quickly displaced indigo as the country’s chief expo...

In recent years, El Salvador's coffee production was hit hard by a fungus known as "roya" which decreased the coffee harvest by as much as 60% in the country.   This blow to the coffee sector cost tens of thousands of jobs in the small country. This chart using data at the International Coffee Organization  shows the steep drop off in Salvadoran coffee production starting in 2012: Now Reuters reports on how many farmers are turning to higher quality beans, which require more intensive care but also fetch a higher price in world markets: Farmers in the Central American country have turned to specialty coffee trees - identified by fanciful names such as bourbon, geisha and pacas - in hopes of reviving a local industry devastated by crop disease just a few years ago.  The trees produce some of the world’s highest quality coffee, beans with distinctive tastes prized by consumers in the United States and elsewhere who are willing to pay up for top-drawer ...

The Cup of Excellence is a competition of coffee quality which takes place in coffee-producing countries around the world.   The competition just concluded in El Salvador with the winning coffee finace located in La Palma, Chalatenango.    You can read about all the top farms in this year's competition here . From Daily Coffee News : The 2017 auction, organized by the nonprofit Alliance for Coffee Excellence and in-country partners following a successful 2017 Cup of Excellence quality competition, shattered previous CoE El Salvador auction records, with numerous international coffee buyers offering more than $95 USD per pound for a honey-processed Pacamara coffee from the Santa Rosa Farm. The previous individual high in El Salvador was $50.10....  The auction represents a major win for the Santa Rosa farm — founded in 1979 by Jorge Raul Rivera near the municipality of La Palma in Chalatenango Department — but also for the Pacamara variety, known not only ...

The Catholic News Service has an article today about the ongoing impact of coffee rust on small fincas and farmers in El Salvador:  JUJUTLA, El Salvador  — Oralia Lopez had a brother leave for the United States in 2013. He had given up on eking out a living in El Salvador's coffee country, where a fungus known as coffee rust wiped out crops and caused hardship and hunger. He arrived in the Washington, D.C., area, home to many Salvadoran migrants, and started sending home remittances.  His success encouraged two brothers to try their luck, Lopez said, but they were detained on the Mexico-U.S. border and deported.  "Agriculture is not providing anything here to survive on," Lopez said.  Such is the desperation in this corner of El Salvador and other parts of Central America, where coffee crops can provide modest livelihoods. The coffee crisis in El Salvador has sent some searching for work in larger cities, while those staying put increasingly grow subsi...

El Salvador is in the coffee harvest season, and the news is not good.    The coffee rust blight which afflicts coffee farms throughout the country has led to a dramatic drop in coffee exports.  According to published reports , El Salvador received  40% less coffee export income in October/November than in the same period one year ago, reflecting lower coffee prices and an 18% reduction in volume of exports. Last week El Salvador's National Assembly finally established a fund for combating the coffee blight known as "la roya" and the ministry of agriculture declared an agricultural emergency .   Annually coffee accounts for tens of thousands of jobs in El Salvador.    With job losses in the coffee growing areas, rural poverty will increase and there will be migration into the cities or out of the country. Interested in more general information about the coffee industry in El Salvador?  The PROCAFE Foundation has made this English language...

According to a report in La Prensa Grafica , the World Food Program is forecasting that as many as 50,000 Salvadoran families face hunger in coming months because of the impact of coffee leaf rust , known as "roya" in Spanish.   The disease which attacks the foliage on coffee trees has affected as much as 74% of the coffee growing areas of the country.  Coffee farm owners are expected to hire 30% fewer workers for the harvest, and they will harvest fewer coffee beans.   The total harvest is expected to be down as much as 50-60%.   The Salvadoran coffee industry is also being hurt by a significant fall in the world price for coffee .  For those Salvadoran families for whom working in the coffee fincas is a significant part of annual income, the impact of roya and lower prices will be less food on the table and hunger in the home.

A outbreak of a fungal blight affecting coffee plants known as "coffee leaf rust" is threatening the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people in Central America including El Salvador.  An  article from the Christian Science Monitor  describes the problem: [T]his time is different, experts say. The aggressive outbreak has extended to more than 70 percent of coffee bushes in Guatemala and El Salvador, 64 percent in Costa Rica, and lesser amounts in Nicaragua and Honduras, according to a May 13 report by the International Coffee Organization. Regional coffee production fell 17.1 percent in the past October-to-March season, and it is likely to fall 30 percent to 40 percent in the coming season, which begins in October.  Increased migration?  In Central America, with a total population of 41 million, nearly 1 million seasonal and permanent coffee workers are expected to lose their jobs next season.  “Each of these jobs are providing for six people. You...

This is the time of year for the coffee harvest in El Salvador.   Reuters recently ran a photo-essay of pictures from the Santa Adelaida coffee cooperative in La Libertad department which you can view here .   Coffee from this certified organic finca is available online, including here .

The 2011 World Barrista Championships were held June 2-5 in Bogota, Colombia. The winner this year was Alejandro Mendez from El Salvador. With a polished presentation featuring coffees grown in El Salvador, he brewed and poured sophisticated coffee drinks for a panel of judges You can watch his winning presentation here . Competitors at the annual championship must prepare four espressos, four cappuccinos and four original signature drinks in a 15-minute performance set to music. They are then judged not only on the taste of the beverages, but also on cleanliness, creativity, technical skill and overall presentation. In the final championship round, Mendez competed with other finalists from the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Spain and Japan. ( Learn more ). El Salvador Barista Champion 2011 Alejandro Mendez from World Coffee Events on Vimeo .

Chris Hallberg is from the Milwaukee area, and he recently narrated an audio visit to a coffee plantation west of San Salvador.   You can listen here to the story which aired on public radio recently.

After a three month absence from blogging, Stephanie is back writing at The Plantation Diaries . She is in the middle of the coffee and corn harvest at Finca de Angeles, and her recent posts share stories and pictures of the work. Here's an excerpt: After breakfast, the women strapped their baskets to their waists held by a sling around their neck. Beto called the women in the order they showed up. I was surprised to find out how well planned the work is. I was always under the impression that the pickers just worked an area, harvesting which ever tree suited them. The coffee trees like most crops are planted in evenly spaced rows. Beto assigned one women at the beginning of every row. That would be their work line for the day. Meanwhile the children ran around delighted to have such open spaces to play. Their only task in helping their mothers, was to carry spare empty sacks and water bottles. We do not employ child labor here! Before walking away from the field this morning, I ...

The high price of petroleum products has made fertilizer unaffordable for many coffee farmers in El Salvador and the rest of Latin America. This Reuters report describes the problem: SANTIAGO DE MARIA, El Salvador, Aug 13 (Reuters) - The thinning trees of El Salvador's coffee orchards are the most visible signs of strain on an industry that should be booming. Coffee prices are near their highest since a global coffee crisis earlier this decade, but growers say fertilizer costs are rising even faster, hurting their ability nurture plants. In Latin America, home to some 60 percent of global production, farmers say output will suffer. "With fertilizer prices so high, we haven't been able to fertilize, and we'll feel the effects in the next harvest," said Luis Roque, an agronomist at the UNEX coffee exporting company that grows arabica beans in El Salvador. Gazing at the coffee trees lining the slopes of a nearby volcano, in the town of Santiago de Maria, Roque poin...

As an export crop, coffee has long played a role in the history and economy of El Salvador. The coffee industry this year made good gains and showed additional growth of gourmet coffees raised with environmentally sensitive practices. Coffee exports for 2007-08 increased 24% to 994,538 60 kg. bags over the prior year according to the Salvadoran Coffee Council. This month saw the Cup of Excellence Program awards which honors the best gourmet coffee beans coming out of El Salvador's coffee farms and cooperatives. This year the highest rated coffee came from La Ilusión farm, bordering on the Santa Ana volcano: The farm is run minding environmentally friendly practices trying to maintain a balance with the surrounding ecosystem which is part of a natural fauna corridor, crucial for migratory and native birds. This is very important for Ernesto, since La Ilusión is neighboring one of the most important national parks in El Salvador known as Los Andes, nestled on the Santa Ana volca...

It's possible to look in El Salvador and find models of sustainable development. One such situation is feature in a report from Reuters regarding a coffee cooperative strengthening its farmer members by making small loans available: A gourmet coffee growers cooperative in El Salvador plans to open a lending arm to give members access to cash for farm improvements and help protect them against coffee market downturns. Many coffee farmers in El Salvador have had trouble getting loans since coffee prices crashed at the beginning of the decade and banks became wary of funding the volatile crops.... That is why the San Jose de la Majada coffee cooperative is branching out, using money saved from coffee sales and investments over its four-decade history to open a financing arm for members. "We learned something from the coffee crisis, that it's not safe to have all your eggs in one basket, you have to diversify," said Roberto Delgado, who manages the cooperative nestled i...

It's been some time since I pointed out an entry from one of the blogs of US Peace Corps volunteers in El Salvador. Here's a recent post by Laura V, who works in the area of Apaneca in Ahuachapan department, a coffee producing area. In her post, In the coffee forest , Laura describes in pictures and words the coffee harvest: I was able to get some really good pictures of what it´s like after the coffee pickers have finished cutting coffee for the day and have brought it back to the finca to sort and bag up. a coffee finca is basically just a piece of property where there are any number of coffee trees. the owner of that land normally has an ¨mandador¨or ¨colono¨ - someone who lives in a house in the center of the land and maintains the place for the owner. this central area is usually where all the people who are employed to cut the coffee from that particular finca congregate at the end of the day to gather all the coffee that was picked and to work out how much money they a...

Coffees from El Salvador have again been recognized for quality in an international competition. At the Agro Gourmet / Specialty Commodities competition in June in Paris, coffees grown in El Salvador received the Gold and Silver Medals. Winning the gold medal was coffee from the La Montaña farm, produced by Raul Ochoa Hernandez, and the silver medal went to coffee farmed at La Hondurita by José Arnulfo Montiel Recino. Both coffees also did extremely well in the 2007 Cup of Excellence Program , where La Montaña also placed first, and coffee from the farm recently received bids of $15.55 per pound in the Cup of Excellence auction . Here is an excerpts from the Cup of Excellence website describing Raul Ocoa Hernandez and his farm at La Montaña in Chalatenango: Raúl Ochoa is the owner of Finca La Montaña which is nested in the Chalatenango department, within the coffee region known as Alotepec-Metapán mountain range. La Montaña farm is cultivated with Bourbon, Pacas and Pacamara va...

A recent article in Reuters describes how a sprawl of housing developments is devouring coffee farms and endangering the country's already overstressed ecosystems: Only the size of Massachusetts, El Salvador has lost some 35,000 hectares of coffee farms, or 21 percent of the planted area, since its 2001 census, some to abandonment or other crops but much to urban sprawl. In its first harvest after its civil war, El Salvador produced 3.3 million 60 kg bags of beans. This year's harvest is estimated at just 1.24 million bags, and yields are well below international standards. Once the backbone of the economy, coffee growers have suffered from years of low international coffee prices, many are in debt and the decision to sell is easy. "El Salvadoran producers have had a series of setbacks that have made us lose our links with agriculture," said Jeff Holman, president of coffee exporter Volcan, who blames an economic structure based on workers who live abroad. "The...

From the IPS News Service comes a success story out of El Salvador about a cooperative selling organic, high quality coffee: COMASAGUA, El Salvador, Dec 4 (IPS) - "We need to produce more coffee, because our customers want more of it, the demand is greater than what we produce," José Antonio Sandoval, a Salvadoran small farmer and an expert on growing and selling organic, traditional, gourmet aromatic coffee, said with pride. Sandoval is a leader of the Santa Adelaida cooperative, aimed at protecting the environment by producing coffee without agrochemicals, while increasing income and consolidating social programmes for its members, who have historically been marginalised, have little education and are stunted by poverty. It's a perfect undertaking, an ideal match with their cooperative vision. ( more )