President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele launched his own personal luxury coffee brand, Bean of Fire, this weekend, describing the venture as a “passion project.”
Bukele made the announcement on his Twitter account on Saturday evening, claiming that the coffee brand “has nothing to do with politics.” Bukele pointed out that the company’s goal is to make “the best coffee in the world, 100 percent made in El Salvador.”
The announcement capped a surprisingly politically active week for Bukele, who found himself mentioned unfavorably in President Donald Trump’s Republican National Convention (RNC) nomination acceptance speech. Trump claimed that Bukele was flooding the United States with criminal migrants, a remark Bukele chose to ignore, cryptically commenting on taking the “high road.”
The coffee brand’s website, which appears to mainly target potential U.S. customers, states that its product comes from a farm located in the northern slope of the Santa Ana Volcano, one of the country’s 20 volcanoes.
“Volcano coffee grows on some of the most fertile, mineral-rich soil in the world. Even the most advanced human technologies cannot recreate these natural conditions,” the website explained. “Our ambition is to unlock them and create a perfect symbiosis between the Ilamatepec’s ancient topography and the world-famous craft and dedication of the people of El Salvador.”
The website lists a U.S.-based LLC registered in Florida as its contact information, and ships its products through Amazon’s services. At press time, the brand offers nine different coffee varieties, all of which are sold in one-pound packages for $50 each before shipping.
The launch of Bukele’s “Bean of Fire” coffee brand was accompanied by an initiative promoted by Bukele for the daily donation of 200 pounds of coffee, sugar, and 8,000 cups to local Salvadoran businesses. The initiative reportedly claims to support local entrepreneurship and “encourage Salvadorans living abroad to return and invest in their homeland.”
According to local media, several businesses have become beneficiaries of Bukele’s coffee donation initiative, with the latest recipient being a local family business in the Soyapango municipality.
“So basically, the coffee you pay for in the U.S. is free in El Salvador. And we’re adding one new small business every day,” Bukele said on Monday. “Buy some, so we don’t go broke too fast.”
The Foreign Agricultural Service of the United States Department of Agriculture stated in May that El Salvador’s coffee production is expected to reach 555,000 sixty-kg-bags in marketing year (MY) 2023/24. USDA claimed that the country’s coffee sector continues to be affected by climate factors as well as lack of labor in rural areas due to migration, which affects labors such as pruning, tree renovations, and berry picking and processing.
“In addition, prices for inputs remain high, increasing production costs. The Government of El Salvador (GOES) continues to carry-out a coffee plant give-away program, however most plants are not planted by farmers due to lack of the financial resources to cover this cost,” USDA stated.
The launch of Bukele’s “passion project” coffee brand comes after former President Donald Trump accused him of sending the nation’s criminals to the United States on Thursday.
“A certain country, and I happen to like the president of that country very much, but he’s been getting great publicity because he’s a wonderful shepherd of the country,” Trump said on Thursday, continuing:
He says how well the country’s doing because their crime rate is down. And he said he’s training all of these rough people. They’re rough, rough, rough. He’s training them. And I’ve been reading about this for two years. I think, “Oh that’s wonderful; let’s take a look at it.” But then I realize he’s not training them; he’s sending all of his criminals, his drug dealers, his people that are in jails, he’s sending them all to the United States. And he’s different in that he doesn’t say that.
Bukele appeared to have responded to Trump’s statements in a social media post that read only, “taking the high road.” He then posted videos of prior visits to El Salvador by Republican politicians.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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