Agriculture Minister Osmar Benitez spoke on the state of Dominican coffee farming during an event held at the Technological Catholic University of Barahona (UCATEBA). He said that the country consumes seven million plantains and 340,000 quintals of coffee each day.
Minister Osmar Benitez noted that there are 1,500,000 tareas (100,000 ha) of coffee planted in the Dominican Republic and there is room for lots more. He said that just the private sector has planted 50,000 tareas of new coffee plants. He explained that in the southwestern Barahona region there are 400,000 tareas of coffee. The Enriquillo region has some of the most productive coffee plantations.
The minister also added that the Dominican Coffee Institute is creating a registry of the 28,000 coffee producers throughout the country as a way of documenting the reality of the nation’s coffee production. According to the International Coffee Organization, the Dominican Republic is recognized as one of the top five coffee-producing nations in the world.
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El Caribe
14 October 2019