REPUBLIC OF COFFEE

The Dominican Republic Takes a Long, Hard Look
At Its Coffee

IN FEBRUARY OF THIS YEAR, an international team of experienced cuppers landed in the Dominican Republic to find out if the farmers there, with help of a major Dominican Coffee Board project, have advanced in the production of specialty coffee. The 20 international cuppers were invited to the Dominican Republic to cup the results of a three-year-long coffee study.

     The cuppers were certainly not the first people to voyage to this country looking for valuable resources. As early as 1492, Christopher Columbus landed in Hispaniola, drawn by rumors of gold. There, he encountered an advanced native population estimated to have ventured there about 2,000 years earlier from South America.
     Although this year’s international cupping team did not find gold or ancient societies, they did find an island uncommonly suited to the production of coffee. The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, is fortunate as it has very special growing conditions: 1,800–2,200 mm of rain distributed throughout the year and altitudes ranging from 300 to 1,500 meters. Currently, Dominican coffee is 100 percent washed arabica. Ninety percent of the crop is comprised of typica trees grown with shade and little or no use of chemical products. The remaining 10 percent is caturra with regulated shade or no shade in the highest areas.
     The coffees produced by the Dominican Republic are interesting to roasters (and coffee consumers) because they have unique and varied flavor characteristics. According to Kentaro Maruyama, of Maruyama Coffee Japan, one of the experienced cuppers in attendance, “I am interested in Dominican coffee because I think it has great potential. In Japan, Dominican coffee is thought of as a good substitute for Jamaican Blue Mountain. But I think there is something more. During the cupping event I found some unique fruit flavors in Dominican coffee. I will continue to study Dominican coffee closely.”
     The uniqueness of these characteristics has much to do with the makeup of the mountains in which the coffee is grown. Unlike many other coffee regions in the world, the mountains of Hispaniola have little volcanic soil, but instead are derived from a calcium substrate. In addition, the coffee trees receive consistent rainfall throughout the year, allowing a 10-month harvest period, according to altitude ranges.
     The variety of Dominican coffee’s personality is derived from the diverse growing regions, climates, processing, rainfall, altitude and other major and minor influences. These variations have historically had both a positive and negative effect on the overall quality of the coffee, and have led to an uneven reputation for the coffee. This reputation, combined with the fact that the majority of Dominican coffee is consumed by Dominicans and that production was reduced greatly by hurricane George in 1998 and by the depressed coffee prices of recent years, has meant that Dominican coffee is not well known among roasters in the United States.

Researching Coffee

The combination of potentially great coffee, the opportunity to increase production and the potential to impact the standard of living for a large number of farmers made the Dominican Republic an ideal case for scientific study. Consequently, in 2002 the Dominican Coffee Board (CODOCAFE), started a project to raise the level of quality of coffee grown in the Dominican from commercial grade to specialty and to improve the per acre yield of specialty coffee. The Dominican government, through a U.S. $20 million loan from the French Agency for Development—the French government version of the USAID—subsidized an ambitious project managed by CODOCAFE with technical assistance of BDPA and the French Agricultural Research Center for International Development, CRIAD. The purpose of this program is to reach sustainability while increasing added value through yields and quality improvements thus developing a specialty coffee niche.
     The first order of business for the project was to codify all of the physical variables of coffee that could impact yield and quality. The country was divided into 19 specific growing zones and seven altitude ranges. The soils of each combination of zones were tested for PH balance and organic material and mineral composition. The percentage of varietals (typica and caturra) planted in each zone were also recorded.
     Next was the task of querying and recording farm and processing variables. This was not an easy task in a country where there are more than 60,000 coffee growers, 80 percent of whom cultivate less than eight acres and wet-process their coffee in numerous small mills. Farms were studied and data regarding wet processing, drying, and storage techniques were recorded alongside annual yield, bean size and bean defect data from the same farms. In all, more than 800,000 pieces of data were collected and recorded into a database, representing what may be the most comprehensive resource for physical, chemical and sensorial attributes versus agricultural processes versus crop yield for a country ever assembled in a single resource.
     The critical component to make all of this data useful to farmers, marketers, exporters, importers and roasters, however, was the ability to cross reference the data with the flavor characteristics of the coffees. Extensive cuppings have been and continue to be performed, with the objective to be able to link the flavor characteristics to the growing and altitude zones and to link aroma and acidy characteristics to farms and processing techniques.
     Data by itself, however, does not lead to higher yields and better quality. It is the analysis of the data that has led to the identification of priority goals. Among the first projects undertaken were road upgrades, designed to move the coffee from the farms to the processing facilities more quickly, and the construction of modern wet-processing facilities. In addition to infrastructure enhancements, funding is also being used to encourage farmers to transition to the production of specialty grade coffee. According to Carlos Herrera, President of ASOCAES La Esperanza Co-op, “Money from the program has helped by allowing the co-op to focus on growing specialty coffee by offering members a premium for better coffee. The co-op has grown from 250 members to more than 900 members in the last few years. In 2006, the co-op will start a pilot program to give members a premium of 5–10 percent above the market rate for producing specialty grade coffee.”
     As the yields and quality of the coffees increase, the project will also be involved in increasing consumer demand for Dominican specialty coffee. Two areas have already been identified to focus new marketing activities. First, among coffee producing countries, the Dominican Republic is one of the leading per capita consumers of their own product. Raising the local population’s appreciation of specialty coffee will have a direct impact on the demand for Dominican specialty. Second, following a trend which has been successful in other producing countries, project funds will be used to market to the over three million tourists who visit the beautiful beaches and mountains each year.
     When asked how they would gauge the success of the project, Alcides Morel, director of PROCA2, says “In general, the success of the project will be determined by the success of the individual farmers. If they are receiving demand and higher prices for their coffees and they are able to keep increasing their yields to meet that demand, we have been successful. To be more specific, we will be gauging success on yearly yields of specialty coffee, the increase in the number of farmers growing specialty coffee and independent cupping scores of our coffees versus the best coffees in the market.”

The Future

All of this leads back to the recent gathering of the experienced, international cuppers. As a checkpoint on the progress of upgrading the quality of Dominican coffee, the team was invited to the country’s capital, Santo Domingo, to evaluate samples and to assist in the education of local cuppers in what specialty coffee roasters are looking for when they cup. Although the overall results were mixed, several standout coffees scored at the specialty level. The study also showed that cuppers from the U.S., Europe and Japan responded differently towards each coffee, which will help when determining how to market Dominican coffee to buyers around the world.
     The cuppers were invited not only to evaluate the coffee samples but to gather data to analyze and determine how each market evaluates a coffee. The results proved there are many Dominican coffee growing regions and each has a unique flavor profile. As a matter of fact, it is now necessary to create new regional names to capture and preserve the distinctions between each. Contrary to other countries where elevation is a strict indicator and extremely important, it was found that with high elevation coffees, the altitude did affect the cup profile, but surprisingly was not as big of an influence as expected. Therefore, the Dominican Republic coffees must be truly elevated in a cupping, taking into account not only elevation but also microclimate, region and soil. It also showed that while different markets evaluate a coffee at the same sensorial levels, there was a difference in preference or attractiveness of that coffee. Even within the same market, Europe for example, cuppers might score a coffee equally in the sensorial evaluation, but would have differences of opinion about whether that same coffee was desirable or purchasable.
     “We were really pleased with both the scores and with the training we received from the industry experts,” says Fausto Burgos, executive director of CODOCAFE. “We really see this as a validation that we are on the right track, but obviously, gathering and analyzing data are only the first steps towards raising the quality and quantity of quality produced here. We need to follow through on what we have learned by continuing to take action to improve our coffee’s quality and yields and to take steps to drive the demand for our unique coffees.”

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