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USAID Quality Coffee Program Helps Gain Fame for Nicaraguan Coffee and Higher Incomes for Farmers

Lexania Marín says she is a “coffee addict” and has been drinking coffee all her life. Now she does it for a living. Raised on a small coffee farm in the community of Dipilto Viejo in the northern Segovia Mountains of Nicaragua, the university student became a cupper (coffee taster) through a USAID-financed coffee program.

USAID’s quality coffee program is helping farmers, affected in recent years by a fall in coffee prices, to gain a foothold in the higher-priced specialty and premium coffee markets by improving the quality of their bean.

Over the last several years, USAID financed the establishment of 21 laboratories to control coffee quality, benefiting 6,000 farmers. Many of these labs are located right on the farm, and 65 sons and daughters of coffee growers have been trained as cuppers to monitor coffee quality. Currently, a $ 2.7 million program is providing technical assistance and training to seven producer groups in Nicaragua’s coffee regions to improve cultivation and processing techniques to meet the standards of the specialty and premium markets.

Along with improved coffee production and processing, the USAID program provides training in marketing skills. One of the primary roles of the program is to learn from international buyers what they demand in terms of quality, and what the requirements are for certification either as organic, Fair Trade or Rainforest Alliance coffee. This information is communicated to participating producer groups, who are then assisted by the program to improve quality and deliver the product demanded by these buyers. The market is the driving force behind USAID’s activities.

New market opportunities are already beginning to appear for Nicaraguan coffee growers. Buyers from the U.S. and Europe, including a major U.S. coffee house chain, have sampled coffee from the growers participating in the program and were impressed with the quality.

The help these farmers are receiving through the program is beginning to, in the real sense of the words, “pay off.” During the 2003-2004 coffee harvest, these producers sold 3,300 hundredweights of specialty coffee, including organic and Fair Trade, at premium prices to U.S. and European buyers. In addition, the Quality Coffee Program helps support the activities of three U.S. faith-based organizations—World Relief, Catholic Relief Services and Lutheran World Relief—that not only help farmers improve their coffee but also campaign with parishioners in the U.S. to buy the better brew.

The quality control efforts are helping Nicaraguan coffee earn a reputation as one of the worlds finest. Many farmers in the USAID-funded program were winners in this year’s International Cup of Excellence, a yearly event that is judged by internationally recognized coffee experts. And this year, cupping alongside distinguished judges from around the world, was Marin, one of eight Nicaraguan professional cuppers selected to judge in the prestigious Cup of Excellence contest.

“I knew how to pick coffee and depulp and dry it. But I had no idea what cupping was all about. The program taught me how to manage the lab and how to cup so that we could produce better coffee.”

Now, Marin can enjoy drinking her cup of coffee and get paid for doing it.