Can Coffee Help Build Haiti's Economy?

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - Aug. 10, 2026 - PRLog -- Haiti has no shortage of hardworking farmers, agricultural knowledge, or products with international potential. The challenge is connecting producers to markets where their crops can create sustainable income.

Coffee offers a compelling example.

Haiti Has a Coffee Tradition. What It Needs Is a Stronger Market.

Haitians have grown coffee for centuries. Once a major export, it is still cultivated throughout the country's mountainous regions.

But growing a crop and building an economy around it are different things. Farmers need buyers, processing, transportation, financing, and markets that reward quality.

International development organizations have recognized Haitian coffee's potential to generate income, employment, market access, and environmental resilience. The lesson is simple: growing more is not enough if farmers cannot reliably sell what they grow.

This idea drives Singing Rooster's work in Haiti.

Since 2009, the nonprofit social enterprise has built commercial relationships with small Haitian producers around coffee, cacao, chocolate, and art. Rather than treating farmers solely as recipients of charitable assistance, Singing Rooster creates markets for what they grow and make.

Its coffee program connects Haitian farms with consumers and professional roasters through roasted and green coffee. Singing Rooster also works with producer cooperatives and supports practices that combine coffee production with reforestation.

Buying Coffee Can Be Part of the Economic Equation

Infrastructure, investment, and aid matter. But markets matter too.

Farmers who can consistently sell their crops have a reason to keep producing. Businesses that buy, process, and sell Haitian products strengthen the local value chain. Consumers become part of that chain when they make a purchase.

Buying coffee will not solve Haiti's economic challenges. It does something practical: it creates an opportunity for Haitians to earn income from what they grow and make.

The first step can be simple:

Buy Haitian coffee. Learn where it comes from. Serve it. Sell it. Ask a roaster about Haitian green coffee.

Sometimes economic development begins with deciding what to buy.

About Singing Rooster

Singing Rooster is a nonprofit social enterprise connecting small Haitian producers with markets for coffee, cacao, chocolate, and art.

Learn more at www.SingingRooster.org.

Media Contact:
marketing@singingrooster.org