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Latin America
Related: About this forumVenezuelan Coffee Basically Doesn’t Exist Anymore
http://ecosalon.com/venezuelan-coffee-basically-doesnt-exist-anymore/Venzeulas coffee industry has been in a steep decline in the last several decades. Once prized for its coffee including varieties from the Maraciabos port and Caracas (named after the capital city) of the countrys eastern mountains, Venezuela now makes less than one percent of the worlds coffee even though it once rivaled Colombia in terms of production.
Venezuelas coffee industry began to suffer after president Hugo Chávez mandated price controls over coffee in the early 2000s, nationalizing the countrys large roasters. Farmers began selling at a loss to the government. Many found it too unsustainable, turning their focus to other crops or getting out of the farming business altogether. But Trappist monks, best known for producing beer in Belgium, fall under the artisanal producer category, and are protected from the countrys nationalization of coffee. Trappist monasteries require several hours of work each day for the monk residents, and a monastery in Mérida has been leading the charge in the countrys artisan-roasted coffee category. Monks can roast and sell coffee, but at significantly higher prices than the governmentselling for about $21 for a half pound, versus the countrys median price of about $1 per pound for the nationalized coffee beans.
The coffee situation is so poor in Venezuela, and the country is expected to import more coffee this year than it produces, for the first time in history. Blight is devastating what few growers remain. Some of the countrys remaining growers have even resorted to cutting the coffee with corn and other fillers to pad their profits. Current president Nicholas Maduro has banned all exports of Venezuelan coffee, forcing artisan crafters, like the Trappist monks, to compete with the low government prices, or even sell their beans illegally in Colombia.
The monks need help. We went to the office of the Ministry of Agriculture in Mérida and told them our situation. They gave us the phone number of a depository that might have some green beans in Trujillo one of the monks told Vice. We went to the factory and it was just a bunch of people bagging up B-grade beans from Nicaragua. We cant sell that as gourmet coffee. Venezuelas Ministry of Agriculture recommended the monks look to the black market for illegal beans.
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Venezuelan Coffee Basically Doesn’t Exist Anymore (Original Post)
Bacchus4.0
May 2015
OP
Chakaconcarne
(2,462 posts)1. Venezuelan leadership has good intent
...but they're really fucking things up and recovery will be Long and painful.
Bacchus4.0
(6,837 posts)2. They need to get beyond the "what would Hugo do?" mentality and
do what is best for the country. Maduro's resignation would be a good start.