In Guayanilla 69 percent of the coffee floats; picking costs 20 and the floor is 18

On August 24, 2026, Primera Hora visits Finca Roig in barrio Jagua Pasto, Guayanilla, and quotes José Luis Roig Franceschini: the devil take me if I keep picking coffee like this. According to the analyses he has done of the bean ready to pick, 69 percent of it is floating on us. It floats because it has no weight, from dehydration or from the borer. In other years, he said, empty coffee can be 4 or 5 percent by nature. He tossed some 100 beans into a bucket; the vast majority floated; only four stayed at the bottom. Those figures are his, published by Primera Hora. They are not an island agricultural census.

The farm was founded in 1876. It is the fourth generation at the head of 540 cuerdas, 45 of coffee, some 100,000 bushes. One hundred three cuerdas of pasture; the rest in conservation, with some seven springs. After Hurricane María 150 cuerdas of coffee were lost; they had to replant and wait three years. This year the bushes gave five flowerings, which is not usual. He expected 400 quintals. It has not rained on the farm for two months. He has marked 96 degrees Fahrenheit and heat indexes of 126. Coffee under shade of Guaba, Moca, Guamá, and Capá Prieto was damaged all the same. The 31 percent that does not float will go to Café Roig; of the 69 that floats he will try to get seconds. Drying that bean, he said, goes from some four days to almost 12.

Coffee is measured by the almud, some 28 pounds. Picking an almud costs him some 20 dollars: he pays 11.62 an hour. The fixed price farmers have demanded be raised is 18. It is not cost-efficient, he said, but he does not want to see 700 or 800 almudes lost. He averaged that of 400 projected almudes, some 276 would be damaged: some 15 ruined quintals, an approximate loss of 18,000 dollars. He has four months of harvest left. He needs some four good downpours. The projections, according to the piece, indicate the drought could extend through year-end.

On August 16, Primera Hora covered Agriculture favoring raising the coffee price, with a farm floor of 18 dollars the almud toward 20, and the island harvesting some 34,000 of 300,000 quintals it consumes. That is another note, another URL. This one of the 24th does not rewrite it. It puts a farm, a 69 percent, and a 20 against 18. On August 6, El Nuevo Día had cited an unofficial coffee report at minus 69 percent. Primera Hora, on the 24th, arrives at 69 percent floating in a Guayanilla bucket. They are not declared the same 69. The two dispatches are named.

What remain are 11.62 an hour, 20 the almud in cost, 18 the floor, 18,000 dollars of estimated loss, and the 69 percent. A reader who wants the farm ledgers has the Primera Hora URL at the foot. This is not original reporting.

Source: Primera Hora. https://www.primerahora.com/noticias/puerto-rico/notas/lamento-en-la-siembra-me-llevara-el-demonio-si-sigo-recogiendo-cafe-asi/