A long report in El Caribe tells of a major investment by Rafael Perello, manufacturer of leading Dominican coffee brand Cafe Santo Domingo, in the Eastern Massif, a slightly elevated area to the north of San Pedro de Macoris in Hato Mayor province. The report is rather romantically drawn out, using the shutdown of the Consuelo sugar mill as a dividing line between the area’s relative prosperity and poverty. The land is all sugarcane and pastures. Climbing up towards El Valle, the land and vegetation changes and there are coffee farms, some dating back to the arrival of the first Puerto Rican sugar entrepreneurs back in the early 20th century, who brought over their coffee crop of the “Robusta” variety. This variety is different from the “Arabica” coffee that is grown in other areas. The article goes on to describe the innovations that Perello is investing his money in the Agrocafe project in interesting detail. The figure mentioned is of some RD$400 million invested in some 17,000 tareas or about 1000 hectares. The project is reportedly expecting to harvest 15 to 16 quintals of beans from each tarea, an incredible increase over the national average of 50 pounds. Another astounding figure mentioned by Perello is that when the farm is at 75% of capacity, it will be harvesting 50,000 quintals of coffee per year, equivalent to 20% of the nation’s total production for this year. In order to harvest that amount, Perello says that people will come from all over the country. “What this country needs is jobs,” said the coffee magnate.