25Dominican Republic
352,000 bagsIn-depth country profile: production, varieties, classification, history, current situation and points that remain uncertain. Region: Caribbean.
The Dominican Republic occupies the eastern part of the island of Hispaniola. Its plantations spread over the mountain ranges of the center, in small valleys where a microclimate, between 600 and 1,450 meters, favors coffee growing. Smallholders grow under natural shade there.
Regularly exposed to cyclones, the island has benefited from a Franco-Dominican program (AFD, Codocafé) aimed at raising producer awareness, financing infrastructure and defining terroirs at once. The best highland lots are grouped under the designation “Cibao Altura,” considered the best cru of the island.
- Botanical species
- Arabica
- Soil type
- Limestone to granitic, rich in minerals
- Altitude
- 600 to 1,400 m
- Shade
- Forest trees
- Harvest
- Manual and selective (picking)
- Processing
- Wet and semi-wet process; drying on cement patios or in ovens
- Preparation
- Mechanical screen grading; mechanical sorting supplemented by hand
- Harvest period
- December to May
- Packaging
- 60-kg bag
There is not yet an official criterion: producer and importer jointly define a product specification (altitude, varieties, shade, harvest, processing, bean size, sorting). The state body CODOCAFE is nonetheless setting up, with the AFD, a national grading system.
This system combines: production region, altitude, varieties, processing method and maximum number of defects. Example: “Cibao Altura, Supremo AA” = washed arabica from Cibao Altura, screen size > 18, 5 defects max, blue-green and homogeneous appearance.
History
Coffee was introduced in the eastern part of Hispaniola at the same time as in the western part, in 1715. Plants from Martinique then reinforced cultivation.
The trace is direct: de Clieu explicitly mentions sending plants to “Santo Domingo” after 1728.
What follows, however, has nothing in common with that of the neighboring half. In 1920, the republic exported 1,361,666 pounds, forty-five times less than Haiti on the same island.
In other words, the same plant, introduced on the same date, did not give rise to the same sector.
Ukers, All About Coffee (1922), ch. II, p. 5-10; Ukers 1922, ch. XXII, p. 289-291 (exports of the producing countries), p. 290The contrast between the two halves of the island is one of the most telling facts of coffee geography. Same rock, same climate, same introduction date, and two opposite trajectories.
No source consulted explains this gap. The fact can be measured; its cause remains open.
The profile notes outside support. Regularly exposed to cyclones, the Dominican Republic benefited from a Franco-Dominican program involving the Agence française de développement and Codocafé. It covered three areas: raising producer awareness, financing infrastructure and defining terroirs.
Country Profiles, Marco De Sousa Rosa, 2026Today
The volume at the head of the profile, 352,000 bags, is that of the profile. The plantations spread over the mountain ranges of the center, in small valleys with a microclimate, between 600 and 1,450 meters, under natural shade. The varieties are Typica, Catuai, Caturra and Bourbon; harvesting is by picking, processing by the wet and semi-wet process, with drying on cement patios or in ovens.
Country Profiles, Marco De Sousa Rosa, 2026The best highland lots are grouped under the designation “Cibao Altura,” considered the best cru of the island.
Country Profiles, Marco De Sousa Rosa, 2026Gray areas
- No recent Dominican production volume could be sourced.
- The dates and amount of the Franco-Dominican program are not documented by the sources in the corpus.
- The historical gap between Haiti and the Dominican Republic on the same island is explained by no source consulted.
- The share of Dominican production consumed locally is not quantified.