Challenges faced by FEDECARES members:
Following Hurricane David in 1979, a number of coffee producers worked together to rebuild their coffee plantations, resulting in the formation of FEDECARES.
Another devestating hurricane, Hurricane George, hit the region in 1998, destroying harvest and infrastructure.From this time until 2002 there was little export from FEDECARES as they rebuilt their organisations. During this time Cafédirect was their sole export buyer-keeping FEDECARES involved in the export business.
Since then Fedecares had begun to build its export business again; regaining and establishing new clients. Through international projects, the members improved their infrastructure with several developing organic conversion programmes and improving coffee quality.
Unfortunately, in 2007, the Dominican Republic was again hit, this time by Hurricane Noel in October, and Tropical Storm Olga in December – unusually late in the hurricane season. FEDECARES is located in the region most affected.
Mudslides cut off communication to some areas, there were fatalities in member communities, and thousands of people were displaced. There was also substantial damage to infrastructure and to coffee crops. When Tropical Storm Olga hit in December the terrain had not yet recovered from October’s hurricane, resulting in yet more damage - images on the right show some of the damage.
This highlights how the effects of climate change are potentially disastrous and regularly impact the lives of our grower partners. As part of our direct partnership with growers we are in regular communication with FEDECARES and are working with them to help them recover from the devastating effects of this disaster. As an example we insured that they had access to additional pre financing, which allows them to rebuild their businesses to trade again as soon as possible.