AGRIBUSINESS IN HAITI
Business
Future of
the
Americas
Haiti
Diaspora
Investments
in Latin
America &
the
Caribbean
OVERVIEW OF THE SECTOR
Role in the Economy
Agriculture accounts for 25%-28% of Haiti’s Gross Domestic Product
(GDP). It employs slightly more than half of the country’s workforce
– approximately 2 million – with 75% of those classified as low
income. It is the principal activity in Haiti’s rural areas. This
concentration of labor in agriculture – and its corollary, the lack of
productivity of labor in the sector – will persist until investment and
job creation in industry, in services and in agricultural
transformation can begin to absorb the excess labor supply in
agriculture.
Although agriculture is an important sector in the overall economy,
Haiti does not come close to producing the food and livestock
needed to feed its growing population of more than 10 million. Haiti
imports 60% of its food needs, including 80% of the rice that it
consumes. According to Haiti’S Investment Facilitation Center (CFI),
agricultural imports – cereals, meat, poultry, sugar, eggs, dairy
products, vegetables – totaled $867.4 million in 2013. There exists
therefore, tremendous up-side opportunities for investment in
agribusiness as domestic demand continues to grow.
June 15-17, 2015
Marriott Hotel
Presented by
AmCham Haiti
& AACLA
This brief was prepared with the assistance of the Local Enterprise and Value Chain Enhancement Project (LEVE) funded by
USAID HAITI, and implemented by RTI International.
AGRIBUSINESS IN HAITI
Only about one-third of the land is considered suitable for cultivation because of Haiti’s rugged and
mountainous terrain. Land used for family (subsistence) farming covers 89% of Haiti's cultivable area, of
which 21% is managed by women. Farmers without formal education manage 52% of the total area
under cultivation. Future agricultural growth will have to come from the 1,018,951 farms throughout the
country, of which 94% (956,892 farms) are smaller than 3 hectares. The main crops produced are: corn,
rice, coffee sugar cane, yam, mangoes, cocoa.
Recent Performance
Over the past decades, Haiti’s agricultural sector has suffered a declining trend in the long term with an
erratic pattern in the short term. This past year’s under-performance – as that of 2012 – was due to
below-average rainfall in most of the country and especially in the main cereal-producing Artibonite
Valley – a periodic consequence of inadequate and ill-maintained irrigation. Seed unavailability due to
the previous year’s reduced production level also contributed. Cereal imports – rice and corn, for the
most part – in the 2014/15 marketing year (July/June) are forecast to be 710,000 MT, or 6 percent
above last year’s level.
Evolution of Haiti Agricultural Consumption
1997
2002
2007
Kg /Per
Capita
/Year
Total
Kg /Per
Capita
/Year
Total
Kg /Per
Capita
/Year
Total
Cereal (excluding Beer)
49
328,300
40
301,113
43
374,379
Starchy Roots
92
616,400
86
647,392
94
818,411
Pulses
10
67,000
8
60,223
9
78,358
Sugar & Sweeteners
5
33,500
2
15,056
1
8,706
Oil crops
7
46,900
5
37,639
6
52,239
Vegetables
27
180,900
24
180,668
22
191,543
Fruits (Excluding Wine)
113
757,100
114
858,171
107
931,595
Meat
9
60,300
11
82,806
10
87,065
Eggs (Food Groups)
1
6,700
1
7,528
1
8,706
Fish, Seafood
1
6,700
1
7,528
1
8,706
Data based on FAO and http://knoema.fr/
CHALLENGES AND COMPETITIVENESS
Challenges
The challenges facing the agro-business begin with those faced by the agricultural sector itself. The
challenge is three fold:
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AGRIBUSINESS IN HAITI
1. The country’s topology is very challenging for large-scale and modern farming systems, and as a
result 80% of farms fail to produce enough to feed their own households. The net result is a
domino effect of deforestation, erosion, soil exhaustion, destruction of watersheds and
internal/external migration.
2. Historical legacy – the problem of land tenure has
been a long-standing one since independence. So
complex as to be deemed by many to be
“untouchable,” it is at the root of the issues of
rent-seeking, insecurity of land tenure and the
steady fragmentation of land holdings.
3. Archaic farming techniques and knowledge of
improved crop yield techniques result in less
agriculture practice and more forestry activity.
Consequently, the growth of unchecked deforestation in its own right is a major barrier to
improving food and nutrition security. This is further compounded by a complete absence of
agricultural extension services in terms of inputs: seeds, fertilizer, irrigation systems, credit, and
transport infrastructure.
Competitiveness
Both Haitian agriculture and Haitian agri-business hunger for new ideas, new management and massive
investment. Their present shortcomings offer a wealth of opportunities toward the modernization of the
domestic market, of exports within the Caribbean region, as well as to Diaspora (and other-ethnic)
markets in the U.S. and Canada.
Archaic farming methods are one key factor in the decreases in agricultural yield – for example, average
cereal yields (kg per ha) have declined by 11% since 1979. Traditional agricultural production methods
produce a mere $170 per year on a surface of 1,000
square meters, in contrast with the $1,800 per year on
only 70 square meters generated by the greenhouse
methods being taught to small farmers by USAID’s Feed
the Future project. Moreover, not only are the crops
produced of higher quality, but their production also
reduces the environmental impact on water and soil
resources.
Such innovation is an opening for the commercialization
– whether for the local market or for export – of such commodities as dried orange peels (Grand
Marnier), scotch bonnet peppers and organic vegetables. Easily adaptable innovations such as grafting,
which can reduce plant growth and production time by as much as half, are already being applied
successfully in the production of cocoa, avocados, and mangoes.
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AGRIBUSINESS IN HAITI
Motivated and imaginative private sector investors will be well-placed to introduce new production
technologies and processes, raise competitiveness, and develop new markets. Market expansion and
value chain development will be key to the growth of all agricultural sub-sectors.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR INVESTMENT
Opportunities
Estimated annual demand for cereal stands at 2,269,173 metric tons (MT), while local production is only
at 1,266,119 MT; leaving a “food security” gap of more than 40% to be filled by imports. In the near to
medium term, Haiti’s ever-growing urban population will further widen this consumption-production
gap, creating investment possibilities in the agribusiness sector. It is estimated that 35% of the harvest
of perishable goods is lost due to processing and distribution channel bottlenecks emanating from the
preponderance of small individual operators with limited access to capital and to new
technologies. New distribution networks and modern food processing plants are in high demand in
order to feed the four million mouths in
the Greater Port-au-Prince Metropolitan
area alone.
Great opportunities exist for
investments in the areas of cereal
milling – as has recently begun on an
industrial scale in the Artibonite Valley –
cold-storage facilities for fruits and
vegetables, packaging, distribution and
marketing to end-users for the local
market (e.g., supermarkets, hotels).
Other opportunities abound:




The nutraceuticals (plants with distinctive disease preventative or health-enhancement capacity)
market segment in USA alone is expected to reach $753 billion by 2017, with a growth rate of 6%
per annum thereafter.
Worldwide growth in the organic and natural food sector is estimated to be 15-20% annually,
excluding growth from the major food brands, thus offering opportunities for long and secure
investment.
Closer to home, Caribbean markets in general, and their tourist industries in particular depend
largely on natural foods from their neighbors. The mega-banana/plantain enterprise in Haiti’s
Northwest targets those nearby markets, as well as the local economy.
Haiti’s still-nascent tourism drive, if sustained, will eagerly absorb greater and greater quantities of
local agricultural staples and of value-added processed products.
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AGRIBUSINESS IN HAITI

A blessing in disguise, Haiti’s limited use of inorganic
fertilizer today positions it to take great advantage of
wealthy markets – such as Europe and the United States
– for which price is only the third most-important factor,
after quality and freshness.
The Diaspora
One of the major problems faced by members of the
Diaspora in search of business and investment opportunities
in Haiti is the lack of official information on how to do
business, forcing them to resort to family, friends,
middlemen and brokers to advise manage their affairs, a
situation that leads to increasing risks and costs.
For the Diaspora to be considered – and to truly see itself as
– a development partner, rather than merely a source of
remittances, a strong working relationship will have to be
established, paving the way for long-lasting trust. A solid
partnership of the Diaspora and its potential domestic
partners will greatly increase the chances of success for
both. Incentives such as duty exemptions, tax holidays,
preferential trade arrangements with the U.S., Europe and
even Haiti’s CARICOM partners can help to catalyze many
members of the Diaspora to invest in their home country.
One “Lesson learned” from other countries may be for
government to partner with its Diaspora to encourage them
to invest, to assist local communities, and to provide policy
advice. The establishment of the new ministry to deal
specifically with the Diaspora’s needs is a step in the right
direction. However, a more-proactive ministry might be
more useful in collecting data, providing investment
information and other services that could solidify trust and
partnership.
CONCLUSION
A Diaspora Haitian Success Story in Agribusiness
Yve-Car Momperousse, a professional in
organizational restructuring, business
consulting, institutional advancement
and new business ventures, needed
Haitian Black Castor Oil. When she went
to natural and West Indian stores in
Philadelphia in search of the product, to
her dismay, not one store had the organic
oil. Yve-Car decided to make sure that
she, and anyone else who needed the oil,
could readily get it by creating Kreyòl
Essence (KE) in 2008.
KE was fueled by Yve-Car’s vision to
stimulate economic activity in Haiti. A
long-time activist in the Haitian
community, she was convinced that Haiti
needed jobs, not aid. When the
devastating January 2010 earthquake hit,
Yve-Car said to her mom “We should put
the business on hold and focus on
providing emergency care.” Her mom
replied, “Now more than ever, people
will need jobs and a way to be selfsufficient. When the donations stop, how
will the country survive? You need to
persevere to make this dream a reality, if
you want to really help Haiti.”
Five years later, KE markets its ecofriendly luxury beauty products sourced
from the mountains of Haiti throughout
the United States and generates income
for a network of 77 farmers and
producers in Haiti.
Wise Mom, eh?
Haitian farmers, particularly small and medium-sized
farmers, need perforce to be at the center of any agricultural renaissance. But true and sustained wealth
creation will depend primarily not on the inefficient and often haphazard addition of value, but on the
marriage of new capital, modern management and tried collection, processing and distribution
techniques with heightened production. The latter part of this mutually-beneficial union will in no small
measure depend on Haiti’s ever-growing and evermore investment-minded Diaspora.
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