El Salvador Reaps Record Coffee Earnings

Coffee growing near Tacuba, El Salvador.

El Salvador has seen record earnings in coffee this past year; the combination of increased cultivation and soaring world prices has led to many coffee producers bringing in more money than they've seen in a decade. According to the Salvadoran Coffee Council, the past year's export earnings were over $435 million - an increase of 130% from the previous year. A large part of this increase is thanks to the world price of coffee, which is currently at just over $200 per quintal (hundredweight, or 100 kilograms, about 220 pounds). Yes, many of you buy coffee for over nine dollars a pound, nowhere near the 90 cents per pound it's being sold for, but keep in mind this is the "green" coffee bean. Your price includes the cost of transport to the roaster, the roasting of the coffee bean, the fancy coffee packages, transporting to the distribution centers and stores, all the people who are involved with this process along the way, not to mention the brand of the coffee, and marketing too. You might be feeling the sting of higher coffee prices; they are double what they were five years ago, which was double what they were five years before that. That's right, in 2000, coffee prices were around $50 per quintal. Coffee prices (for green coffee beans) are higher than they've been in over twenty years. What's happening? Coffee shortages. Coffee has been affected by recent climate events, such as flooding and droughts, which has shrunk the world supply of coffee.

Thankfully, El Salvador has been able to add to its total harvest in the past year to reap these benefits. This past year, El Salvador harvested the largest quantity of coffee in a decade and a 67% increase over last year's harvest. It's all relative, however, because it looks good when we compare it to the 2000/2001 harvest year. But that year was lower than it had been in over ten years. So, although El Salvador has made great gains compared to the previous ten years, if you line it up with the previous 22 years, it's not looking as hopeful. Perhaps, though, production will continue to increase (trying to insert optimism here!) But it also looks a little bleak, as many coffee fincas are aging and the plans are to take them out of production, which would reduce overall harvest yields. The coffee groups are calling for investments in renovating old coffee fincas and planting new coffee trees, which will help for the future, but likely we'll see a dip in El Salvador's coffee earnings over the next few years.

G-20 Recommends Increasing Investments in Agriculture

The G20 is a group comprised of the top twenty largest economies in the world; together they account for 85% of the world's production of goods and services; over 80% of the GDP and about 80% of the world trade, while accounting for about 65% of the world's population. The members themselves are finance ministers and central bank governors from their respective countries. Their objective is to serve as council to those wealthy nations. Until recently, G8 has been the primary council, but the G20 has risen in stature and is now considered the "go-to" for global economic advising. For the U.S., Timothy Geithner and Ben Bernanke are the representatives. Not surprisingly, El Salvador is not among the top 20 wealthiest nations; it's ranked somewhere around 95 to 100, depending on the source. In fact, no Central American country is represented in the bloc; Mexico, Argentina and Brazil are the only three Latin American countries in attendance.

In a recent meeting, the concern was voiced as to how we would feed a world of 9 billion people, which is the predicted world population in 2050. Less than forty years away. Plenty of time for change, if we start now. One of the seven pillars defined by the G20 in this recent Washington, DC meeting, is to support small-scale farmers through inclusion in farm-to-school connections as well as supporting public-private partnerships that particularly focus on women agricultural producers. The G20 bloc also stressed the importance of protecting the world's most vulnerable citizens from food price volatility and establishing safeguards for pending climate variations that will inevitably affect agriculture around the world. Other suggestions included improving infrastructure, particularly in the energy and transportation sectors, where large gaps exist and many small and poor farmers do not have access to basic infrastructure.

The World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged the richest world economies to invest $100 billion annually each year through 2020 (I can only assume that's a combined total and no what each country should be investing, but my source was not clear). Some of this money, according to Oxfam, could be gained by taxing international financial transactions and imposing a tax of $25 per ton of carbon emitted by cargo planes and ships traveling in international airspace and waters. Whether or not these taxes will be imposed, and if the appropriate investments in agriculture will be made, remains to be seen. But at least it is on the agenda, and high up on the list at that. Food is something we cannot do without, and a food system that places a high value on sustainably and locally produced agriculture will also be one that improves the lives and livelihoods of millions of people - most of them quite poor people - around the world.

Pedro, a Salvadoran farmer, points to his damaged lettuce plants. Despite the overhead protection from the rain (and excessive sunlight - depending on the season), and the fact that he has terraced his land, he still faces many risks. As an organic grower, he strongly believes in how he's helping the world and earning a living. Increasing investments in small-scale agriculture would help growers like Don Pedro.

Sustainable Coconut Industry in El Salvador

The coconut, Cocos nucifera, is the sole species of the genus Cocos, a palm tree grown around the world for its fruit and fiber. The origin of the plant is still debated: some scientists believe the tree is from India or the Asia-Pacific region, while others contend they're from South America. Either way, the tree has been cultivated and used for food and building materials by humans for centuries. And on the Island of the Holy Spirit, near Bahia de Jiquilisco in El Salvador, the coconut is a way of life. A little more than 10 percent of the island's 1800 residents are employed in the coconut industry; approximately 9 million coconuts are harvested from the island's trees each year. On the island is a cooperative that transforms the coconut into edible products, industrial products, or items of ornamental value.

Coconut plantation near Bahia de Jiquilisco (close to Playa El Espino).

Forty-five men cut, transport, and split about a thousand coconuts each day and thirty-five other people (primarily women) separate the "meat" of the coconut from the husk. Historically, most of the edible portion of the coconut has been used for industrial oil production. For this to happen, the women spread the meat out on the cement patios of the cooperative to dry - for six to fifteen days, depending upon if it is the rainy or dry season. Once dehydrated, the coconut meat is crushed in a mill, treated to clean it, and then sold to a factory that produces it into oil. This has been the most prominent activity, and the longest-running, on the island, but it is not consistent because contracts have not been created with the buyers; their needs fluctuate and they might not request a shipment of coconut for oil for two months. So, the islanders are changing the industry; they are looking for new avenues to sell their product. Fresh sales have been up: around 4,000 coconuts (only the meat part, removed from the husk and hard shell) are sold every few days to vendors who make it into food products.

Neat rows of coconut palms (Cocos nucifera) at the edge of Bahia de Jiquilisco, growing right up to the high tide line.

On the island, locals have started initiatives to make preserves, sweet bread, and crafts from the coconut. Today, nearly 800 pieces of coconut candies are made each day in ten different flavors and varieties, such as coco con dulce, coco rayado, coco pina, etc. Coco Art is also gaining popularity as women are making items from the hard shell of the coconuts, such as jewelry, mobiles, candle-holders and other ornamental items. The cooperative is still looking to invest in equipment that will allow them the ability to refine the oil themselves, and also for a machine that would allow them to bottle the coconut water in a sanitary method. Right now, the coconut water is just wasted, dumped out.

What is not being wasted is the natural fiber around the coconut fruit. For the past four years, this "waste product" has been made into planting substrate, liners for plant baskets, and as cropping bags. This sector of the coconut industry employs ten people who formally made a living fishing and collecting small mollusks in the mangrove swamps - jobs that were often back-breaking and low-paying. This sector is hoping to ramp up production by creating coconut coir - a substrate used for sowing seeds in greenhouses made from the pith of the coconut (the part of the husk around the spindly fibers). They also hope to increase sales of the plant baskets, but recently realized that people have become so accustomed to the plastic liners that even though the coconut liners will last seven years, consumers do not realize this and are therefore biased against them. With some strategic marketing, they should be able to improve sales.

Enjoying fresh coconut water by the pool! Near the beaches, you can always find fresh coconuts for sale, ready-to-drink for fifty cents a pop.

This seems all good. But is it? Having a coconut plantation naturally means that you have one large monoculture of nothing but C. nucifera growing for as far as the eye can see. But in this country, having something growing all the time, holding the soil in - particularly in coastal areas - is a lot better than the otherwise rampant deforestation. Coconut plantations are certainly better for the environment and human health than sugar cane plantations. Yes, there are insect pests - as one would expect in a monoculture - and those are managed by insecticides, although I cannot say specifically what kind or how often they spray on this island. So, unlike in other countries, in El Salvador, coconut plantations are not the cause for deforestation because the whole landscape was already deforested where coconuts are planted! Additionally, from personal experience, I have seen how coconut plantations are not just used for coconut cultivation; the land is used for cattle. Cows roam around in the thin shade of the palm trees, eating vegetation around the base of the trees, keeping the weeds down and adding fertility to the soil. Overall, it seems to be a reasonably sustainable industry for El Salvador.