Coffee growing in Sainte-Suzanne, Haiti: an analysis of its socio-economic values

The article asks what place coffee holds in the economy and social life of growers in three communal sections of Sainte-Suzanne (Sarazin, Foulon, Côtellette), a commune that is 95% rural with 25,492 inhabitants according to IHSI (2015). The field work, carried out in 2010 in three stages (exploratory survey, questionnaire test, formal data collection), covers 45 growers, 15 per section, drawn from the 180 producers listed by the KPKS cooperative. Growers are grouped by area: small (0.1 to 0.5 ha), medium (0.6 to 1 ha) and large (over 1 ha). Coffee plots range from 0.12 to 2.5 ha with an average of 0.60 ha and are interplanted with yam, bean and malanga; the varieties named are arabica typica, blue mountain and caturra.

The abstract reports gross value added per hectare of 62,791.83 gourdes in Sarazin, 98,272.84 in Foulon and 76,357.99 in Côtellette, and gross remuneration of family labor of 3,533.59, 7,340.92 and 6,544.29 gourdes. The tables in the body of the text give different values, with Foulon ahead on both value added and remuneration. The author works out family labor pay of 78.52 gourdes per day in Sarazin, 122 in Foulon and 145 in Côtellette, compared with 125 gourdes and two meals for a day worked for another farmer, and concludes that coffee contributes weakly to growers' socio-economic performance.

KPKS cooperative sales rose from 2,236.26 pounds in 2005 to 7,101.25 pounds in 2010, at $2.50 per pound from 2007 to 2010; the drop in 2008 is attributed to a cyclone. The author notes that the plantations are very old and recommends sanitary, maintenance and regeneration pruning, and awareness sessions to reduce felling of shade trees.