This month we will be tasting two different single estate coffees from El Salvador. As part of the club, I research as much as possible about the coffees we are supplying. Here is an insight into the plight of coffee from El Salvador, once a great coffee producing nation.
The coffee grown in El Salvador is of a great quality, but the industry is struggling. During the civil war (1980 – 1992) the country lost vital infrastructure. More recently, the coffee industry is trying to reverse years of pollution and faces scarcity of water and labour. Low prices forced hundreds of thousands of farmers into bankruptcy – yet, in the late 1950’S, El Salvador was the fourth largest producer of coffee in the world. Today, the industry is in such a poor shape that it produces just two percent of gross domestic product. One fourth of El Salvadorans live in the U.S.A. and send back $3 billion each year. El Salvador has lost 98% of its forests. Coffee groves provide much of the trees that are left. Unfortunately, American and local developers are destroying the coffee groves to build shopping malls and houses. Development and the loss of trees have led to erosion and a water crisis. Some El Salvadorans see coffee as something that can help save El Salvador…but it is an uphill battle.
