In Puerto Rico, coffee growers are in demand
Despite agroecological challenges, several local initiatives are seeking to have the island’s coffee recognized for its excellence. Historically, Puerto Rico has been known for the beverage
Iris Rodríguez remembers sleeping on a bed made out of sacks. Her grandfather put it together for her; she slept on it while her family processed coffee in the early hours of the morning, during harvest time. “That’s one of the memories that made me feel like I belonged and that I was loved by my family,” she recalls.
Throughout her adolescence, she was deeply involved in the work on her father’s farm in Adjuntas, a small town in the central mountain range of Puerto Rico. Eventually, at age 50, she returned to the countryside to dedicate herself fully to the family farm. However, she soon realized that the coffee sector lacked support and proper representation.
While the coffee industry on the island dates back to the 18th century, today, it faces challenges such as labor shortages and climate change, as well as a reduction in the land area suitable for cultivation, factors that hinder production.
Despite this, there are initiatives from within the island that are committed to strengthening the country’s coffee ecosystem. Three of these projects – Procafé, Cafiesencia and Café Dos Caminos – seek to support coffee growers through entrepreneurship, education and sustainable development, without neglecting the emotional value of Puerto Rican coffee.
Coffee cultivation was introduced to Puerto Rico in 1736, becoming a renowned industry that exported coffee to Europe, including the Vatican and the Spanish monarchy. But what was once dubbed the “coffee of popes and kings” began to decline in 1898 with the U.S. invasion, hurricanes and global competition.
Decades later, in 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated between 80% and 85% of the coffee plantations. In response to the destruction, Rodríguez, along with Pedro Pons and Eric Torres, founded Puerto Rico Coffee Producers Inc. (Procafé). The organization’s mission is to boost coffee production, both in terms of volume and efficiency, for the socioeconomic development of coffee farmers, their families and their communities.
Amid the hurricane’s aftermath, facing a lack of electricity and safe drinking water, the organization launched its first project. Thanks to donations from the Starbucks Foundation and Puerto Rico Coffee Roasters, Procafé distributed 750,000 coffee tree seedlings, supplies and a practical planting manual to coffee farmers. “This provided hope at a critical time, allowing families to plant what they could manage,” Rodríguez explains.
Likewise, there are other initiatives that are committed to the future of coffee farming, such as Cafi Cultura Puertorriqueña Inc. (Cafiesencia), where Lisette Fas Quiñones and a team with over 15 years of experience serve rural communities, farmers, women and youth through ecological conservation practices.
Under that commitment, they created the Farm Technology and Restoration Project, a collaborative effort with the Puerto Rico Forest Service that uses drones to analyze soil health, crops and the agricultural landscape. “It started with a focus on coffee, but now it extends to all types of farms in Puerto Rico,” she explains.
A bet on local products
Despite the fact that coffee production on the island has been at risk of disappearing, some see the situation as an opportunity to evoke the emotional value of Puerto Rico’s coffee-growing tradition.
This motivation led Juan Feliciano and Anthony “Tony” Cáceres to create Dos Caminos (“Two Paths”), a local coffee brand developed to represent the “everyday Puerto Rican cup of joe,” seeking a middle ground between different taste preferences.
But neither Feliciano nor Cáceres come from coffee-growing families. They met in 2022 through the content creation industry in Puerto Rico. At that time, Feliciano was known for his podcast “Café en Mano” (translated as “coffee in hand”) which is focused on interviews about mental health, discipline and entrepreneurship. Cáceres, meanwhile, made comedy videos and conducted street interviews for social media.
A year later, they both saw the potential of combining their talents. They had a natural chemistry: Feliciano’s skill with interviews and Cáceres’s knack for mass communication created a big opportunity to tell stories through social media platforms. And they had an unexplored niche from which to tap into local narratives: coffee. “We’re simply doing something that we understand [and which] hasn’t been done before,” Feliciano explains. “We’re telling a story with coffee that connects people to tradition in Puerto Rico.”
Even so, they understood that they couldn’t convey the love and connection they felt for the island’s coffee without someone to guide them through the industry. In 2025, they met Alfonso Pérez, a 33-year-old coffee farmer (compared to the profession’s average age of 62 in Puerto Rico) whose passion for the bean helped them understand the challenges of farming on – and for – the island. “One of the things that makes Alfonso special is his love for Puerto Rico and his unwavering commitment to recognizing that the product from here is always better,” Cáceres explains.
Today, more than a month after its official launch, the brand has held several pop-up events around the island, which have received a positive response from the public. “We want people to consume local coffee, for the industry to grow and for the government to provide support,” Cáceres adds.
Nearly 10 years after Procafé’s founding, Rodríguez’s vision now focuses on bringing skilled workers from Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to the island, in order to counteract the local labor shortage, which was exacerbated by Hurricane Maria and the Covid pandemic.
To achieve this, the organization – along with the Department of Agriculture and the municipalities of Las Marías and Maricao – is working to adapt schools or other facilities to house the foreign workers, reduce relocation costs and comply with federal regulations such as the H-2A visa, to ensure that the harvest isn’t lost.
Despite the efforts being made by local organizations and brands, Rodríguez emphasizes the need to continue highlighting the hard work done by coffee farmers, as well the benefits that coffee cultivation brings to the country’s economy. “We need to value the coffee that comes from here, because we put so much time and money into it.”
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