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An Island of Many Names Spanish, the Americans or global market fluctuations, the country's history had shaped both their personal
the coffee industry has always had to adapt. stories and the current state of the coffee industry in
Puerto Rico has been called many names: a col- Beyond political and economic turmoil, Puerto Puerto Rico.
ony, a Commonwealth, a territory, a Free Associated Rico's coffee industry has also been shaped by a very
State. To this day, its coffee industry is a product of different kind of force: nature. The island is located in Made in Puerto Rico…or not?
all these influences. the tropics, and as such, it is subject to hurricanes. These
Puerto Rico's coffee industry began in 1736 with storms can cause extensive damage to crops, as was the Gabriel and Eduardo pride themselves in being able
the introduction of coffee plants from nearby Martinique. case with Hurricane Maria in 2017. to offer 100% Puerto Rican coffee to their customers.
At the time, the island was a Spanish colony, and coffee This particular hurricane stripped Puerto Rico of You would think that with such a long coffee-growing
quickly became one of its main exports. The coffee plants most of its farmland—approximately 13,000 farms— history, this would be an easy task. However, as Gabriel
thrived in the warm, humid climate and rich soil of which accounts for roughly a quarter of the island's and Eduardo explained to me, it is actually quite difficult
Puerto Rico, and by the late 1877, the island had 843 total land. And that is the work of only one hurricane. to find coffee that is 100% produced on the island.
registered coffee haciendas. It is no wonder that the country went from being the “At the moment we only produce a very small
During the 1890s, Puerto Rico was the sixth-largest sixth-largest exporter of coffee in the 1890s to produc- fraction of what we consume locally and to remedy that,
exporter of what was then considered high-grade coffee. ing coffee only for the local market by the 21st century. the government imports and resells commercial quality
Competing against larger coffee-producing countries However, the local coffee community is not one semi-roasted coffee that it buys at auctions in countries
like Brazil and Colombia, Puerto Rico's coffee industry for giving up easily. That much became clear after chat- like Mexico, Dominican Republic, etc. in order to fill the
was quite successful. It expanded even further in the ting to Eduardo Trabada and Gabriel Beauchamp, owners huge deficit. They currently make millions of dollars
19th century due to immigration from Haiti and im- of Baraka Coffee Roasters. These two childhood friends annually selling this coffee mainly to big corporations
proved production methods. started roasting coffee in 2014. At the time, they knew that control much of the coffee product that’s available
However, 1898 saw a decline in production due to nothing about the craft and bought a roasting machine to consumers.” Gabriel explains.
the annexation of the island by the United States. Coffee without any prior experience. However, they were de- Apparently, this coffee is then blended with domes-
prices plummeted due to overproduction and there was termined to learn, and through trial and error, they tic coffee and is then “rebranded” and sold as 100% Puer-
a shift in focus to sugar cane production. slowly developed the skills needed to roast coffee. to Rican coffee. However, as Gabriel and Eduardo told me,
From the moment coffee was introduced to the Through my conversations with them I learnt a lot this coffee is of a lower quality and does not support the
island, Puerto Rico's coffee industry has been subject to about what it's like to do business on the island. By that local coffee industry. Interestingly enough, despite having
outside forces beyond its control. Whether it was the point I started truly connecting the dots and seeing how a tropical climate, Puerto Rico also imports over 80% of
its food but green coffee importing is prohibited.
The law that prohibits importing green coffee served
as a protection measure for the local coffee industry when
the farmers were producing large volumes of coffee for
export. The only two ways of importing coffee to Puerto
Rico is if it's semi-roasted or fully roasted.
"It is possible for companies to bring in semi-roasted
or fully roasted coffee on their own by getting special
permits from the government and paying a tax of US $2.50
per pound. What's mind boggling is that even with the
added tax and hefty shipping costs, the imported coffee
sometimes turns out cheaper than the local green coffee.
Due to our high production costs as well as other challeng-
es that we face, Puerto Rican coffee can be 2 to 4 times
more expensive than other countries.” Eduardo comments.
A State of Dependency

Today, if you look up the status of Puerto Rico as
a nation, you will find that it is an “unincorporated
territory” of the United States. What this means is
that Puerto Ricans do not have the same rights as
Puerto Rico’s coffee industry other American citizens. For example, they cannot
began in 1736 with the intro-
duction of coffee plants from vote in presidential elections and they are not repre-
nearby Martinique. sented in Congress.

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