Communes Minister Ángel Prado oversaw the transfer of a coffee-roasting plant to a network of communes. Photo: MinComunas.
The Venezuelan government launched the First National Meeting of the 2026 Communal Coffee Plan on Saturday, May 30, as part of efforts to deepen popular control and increase coffee production for export.
The central event took place in the Ospino municipality of Portuguesa state, where authorities inaugurated the El Cafetal social property company (EPSDC), a coffee-processing plant transferred to collective communal management.
According to officials, the infrastructure will serve nearly 80 coffee-producing communes from the central-western states of Portuguesa, Lara, Yaracuy, and Trujillo. The facility, previously ran by the state-owned Venezuelan Coffee Corporation, was transferred to a network of several communes.
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez opened the event, emphasizing the role of grassroots production in the sector.
“Coffee is one of the most important items where the communal economy already has the entire production chain organized,” she stated during a tour of the relaunched plant.
Rodríguez hailed output growth to nearly 4 million quintals in the 2025-2026 cycle, with 1.8 million quintals destined for national consumption and 2.1 million for export. According to official figures, production increased by around 25 percent over the past five years.
In her address, Venezuela’s acting president emphasized the importance of increasing exports to international markets while maintaining accessible prices domestically. “This is the path of a country that builds a sovereign future,” Rodríguez concluded.
Communes Minister Ángel Prado, who led an assembly with thousands of coffee producers and communards on Saturday, echoed the target of boosting non-oil exports from communal organizations. “You can count on the communal economy, President,” he said in his speech.
Agriculture Minister Vladimir Padrino López, who previously served as defense minister, also attended the event and called for joint efforts between his ministry and communal structures to support coffee producers.
“We have to merge, work with a special synergy because in the end, where is the campesino? Where is the coffee grower? He is in a communal circuit, he is in a commune,” Padrino expressed.
For their part, grassroots producers hailed the transfer of the processing plant as a long-awaited conquest. Yamileth Ortiz, a spokeswoman from El Cafetal Commune in Portuguesa state and a worker at the plant since 2008, emphasized the project’s potential to elevate coffee production in the Caribbean nation.
“There is an expectation to receive crops from at least 10 states and strengthen the national links between coffee-producing communes,” she told reporters.
The Venezuelan government has facilitated fuel supplies, seeds, and technical guidance to support producers taking part in the El Cafetal project. In recent years, Venezuelan coffee growers have highlighted fuel shortages, overpriced inputs, and a lack of access to credit as obstacles to maintaining production levels. Rural organizations have likewise denounced the influence of agribusinesses in establishing crop prices.
On Tuesday, the Venezuelan National Assembly began a second discussion on a National Coffee Law. The 37-article bill aims to regulate the production chain from seeds to exports, as well as establish technical and sustainability guidelines.
(Venezuelanalysis) by Silvana Solano Rodríguez
