By Ana Rodriguez Soto - The Archdiocese of Miami
Semilfort Jean-Clair, president of the COCANO coffee cooperative, shows where the escolite bug burrows itself inside the coffee beans.
Close up of the bottle filled with soap and rum that traps the male of the escolite bug. The COCANO coffee cooperative hopes this simple solution will prevent the reproductive cycle of the bug that damages their coffee beans. (COURTESY | MONICA LAUZURIQUE)
Semilfort Jean-Clair, president of the COCANO coffee cooperative, holds up the bottle with the sweet solution that lures male escolite bugs to the bottle and traps them there, preventing reproduction with the female from taking place. At right is Father Nesly Jean-Jacques, pastor of the parish of St. Louis du Nord, of which Guichard is a chapel.
Petit Frere LaFontaine, Guichard representative for the COCANO coffee cooperative, puts the finishing touches on one of the bags where the Haitian-grown coffee will be shipped to Italy for roasting.
Semilfort Jean-Clair, president of the COCANO coffee cooperative, holds a sign explaining the method for battling the escolite bug during the regular weekly meeting of the COCANO coffee cooperative's members in the group's office in Port-de-Paix.
Photography: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
GUICHARD — Behind the chapel and school in this mountainside village grows a forest of bananas, mango trees and coffee plants — a forest that some hope will turn into a profitable future for Haitian farmers and reverse the ecological damage caused by widespread deforestation.
The trees provide shade for the fair-trade coffee grown by farmers in the Cafèière et Cacouyere du Nord Ouest (COCANO) cooperative. The cooperative is active throughout Miami’s sister diocese of Port-de-Paix, located in the northwest region of Haiti, the poorest in a nation that already ranks as the poorest in the Western Hemisphere.
In partnership with St. Thomas University and the Italian coffee roaster Pascucci Torrefazione, the farmers have been able to import and sell their coffee throughout Europe and the United States. Through this fair-trade partnership the numerous middle-men in the coffee export process have been eliminated, keeping the profit in the hands of the farmers of this region.
St. Thomas Business students help import and sell the coffee while communications and mass media classes produced a documentary, “Blooming Hope,” to tell the world about the COCANO cooperative and other projects — an artisans’ workshop and solar energy initiatives — through which the university and its partners, Amor en Accion and Catholic Relief Services, are promoting human dignity and sustainable development in Haiti.
When COCANO’s farmers ran up against a bug — literally, escolite — St. Thomas University was able to support what they hope will be a solution — also literally.
The problem is this: The female of the escolite burrows into the coffee bean to plant her larvae, damaging the bean and making it unsellable.
The solution is a mixture of rum and soap placed at the bottom of a plastic bottle that has been cut open. The mixture attracts the male escolite and traps them, preventing them from fertilizing the female and interrupting the reproductive cycle.
COCANO is training members of the cooperative on the technique, which is simple, affordable and avoids the use of pesticides.
Anthony Vinciguerra is coordinator of St. Thomas University’s Center for Justice and Peace and coordinator of the university’s efforts in Haiti. Since 2006, he has been traveling to Haiti on a regular basis, first with Amor en Accion and in the past few years with groups of university students and faculty.
In publicity materials for Café Cocano, he points out that, before the 1980s, Haiti was famous for its coffee. In fact, the island of Hispaniola, which Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic, used to export over half of the world’s coffee. That ended when coffee prices plummeted and farmers turned to other crops to feed their families.
“The Haitian people have experienced years of starvation and desperation, but they are also a people of great hope, strength — and have soil that produces some of the world’s finest coffee,” Vinciguerra said. “Support of this project not only provides a fine, full-bodied coffee to the U.S. market, but also supports reforestation and the development of a sustainable economy in Haiti’s remote Northwest Department.”
For more information on Café Cocano and St. Thomas’s work in Haiti see www.cafecocano.com and www.stu.edu/haiti.
