Amid the start of the coffee harvest season, president Hugo Chávez announced the launching of the Coffee Plan, from the Bramón Agricultural Cooperative (Coopebram) coffee processing plant, in Táchira state.

This plan projects both rehabilitating sown land; a process to be carried out within two years, and cultivating another 50,000 new hectares within three years.

With this plan, the current total of 150,000 hectares of sown land will increase to 200,000, thus enabling the national coffee producers to fully supply the local demand, which is currently satisfied up to 72%, with the production from the states of Táchira, Mérida, and Trujillo.

The purpose is to attain self-supply within a short term, in order to reduce imports of this product and, later on, to supply the international demand with our coffee, whose quality is rated among the best in the world.

The goal is not only to plant 50,000 new hectares, (20,000 new hectares between 2004 and 2005, another 20,000 hectares between 2005 and 2006, and the remaining 10,000 hectares between 2006 and 2007) but also to increase productivity from an average of 8 to 10 quintals (800 to 1000 Kg.) per hectare to 25 to 30 (2500 to 3000 Kg.)

Published in Quantum N.35

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