International project boost sustainable coffee production in Eastern Cuba

GUANTÁNAMO, Cuba, Mar 25 (ACN) The project Innova Café Guantánamo, an international initiative for cooperation between Cuba’s Centro de Aplicaciones Tecnológicas para el Desarrollo Sostenible (CATEDES) and the Spanish NGO Solidaridad para el Desarrollo y la Paz (SODEPAZ), was launched this year with a view to transforming the coffee value chain and making it more efficient through the use of renewable energy sources.

Funded by the Andalusian Agency for International Cooperation, the two-year-long project will include the search for and monitoring of sustainable solutions to the current situation of coffee production in Cuba's easternmost province.

According to Zadierick Hernández, a specialist with CATEDES, they will focus on diagnosing the entire production chain―from the farmer to the exporter―to identify key points where renewable energies can be use, especially solar power, to improve the quality of the beans and their process, given the current power supply difficulties.

Patricia Franco Rodríguez, representative of SODEPAZ in Cuba, said that the study will pave the way for a rise in production and will benefit other ongoing projects such as Prode Café or Más Café, a plan that relies on the NGO’s thirty-plus years of experience in Cuba, particularly in the province of Guantánamo, where it has also helped with the electrification of rural communities.

The official also stressed that SODEPAZ will advertise the local coffee in Andalusia, taking into account that Spain is a regular consumer.

Innova Café is also bound to contribute to the creation of new sources of income through the sales of by-products, to increase the participation of women in technical and economic decision-making processes, and to boost technology transfer and training programs.