Challenges faced by farmers:
The condition of Haïti's roads is a major problem and RECOCARNO members farms frequently have no road access and at times a mountain track represents the only way of reaching a coffee farmers' village.
Tracks and roads may be made impassable by heavy rains and rising rivers. This is part of the normal challenge faced coffee farmers as they transport their coffee to the washing stations.
In October 2007, Haiti and the Dominican Republic were hit by Hurricane Noel, and then very late in the season in December, Tropical Storm Olga.
RECOCARNO is located in one of the worst affected regions, and was seriously damaged. High winds left some farmers homeless. One of the cooperative’s coffee stores was left without a roof after high winds completely ripped it from the building.
Because of this, 4,000 lbs of parchment coffee were exposed to the elements, and had to be moved to a new area by truck – on some roads which were still not fully dry since the hurricanes - and processed immediately to prevent deterioration in quality.
Through our Producer Partnership Programme (PPP), Cafédirect is working with RECOCARNO to help them recover from the immediate devastating effects of these hurricanes. We are also working with GTZ to help create adaptation strategies for all our grower partners in case they face similar situations.
read more about our joint project on climate change with GTZ