20,000 jobs could go in Puerto Rico, local association believes

Up to 20,000 jobs could be lost  if the Puerto Rican government continues to dictate minimum pricing structures, says Edwin Soto, the president of the Puerto Rico Association of Farmers.

At the moment, the island’s Consumer Affairs Department (commonly referred to as DACO) have decreed that local roasters must may at least $379 per 100kg of domestically produced coffee.

However, if these roasters are to look further afield and import beans, they are mandated to pay at least $322.

Obviously, there is a strong financial argument for the roasters to solely import their beans rather than acquire them through local avenues as it would save them $57 per 100kg – by no means a small amount.

Soto believes that this “puts 20,000 jobs at risk” and will eventually see local coffee replaced with beans of “a lesser value.”

Additionally, Soto has claimed that DACO’s decision could well be illegal.

Other members of Puerto Rico’s coffee industry have been equally damning, with a fair number of growers stating that all coffee sold that contains imported beans should be labelled as such.

Also, some corners have claimed that the government is actively subsidising the Puerto Rico Coffee Roasters monopoly on the island. It is reported that the company controls almost 80% of Puerto Rico’s coffee market.

As a further warning, the Puerto Rico Coffee Growers Association has predicted that towns in the mountainous regions of the U.S. territory will be seriously affected unless the government backtracks on their current policy as plantation will be forced to close and jobs will be lost. The economic impact, they say, could well be severe.

According to the latest available figures, there are over 4,000 coffee farmers in Puerto Rico but 20,000 people can be working in the industry during the peak harvesting period of August to December.