Anthropological Brief: Occupational Multiplicity in Haiti

In addition to engaging in a vibrant internal rotating marketing system and integrated household livelihood systems that include a wide variety of crops, livestock, and harvesting of fruit, lumber and charcoal from trees, rural Haitians everywhere also exhibit what anthropologists refer to as ‘occupational multiplicity’, meaning a surfeit of specialties, such as housebuilding tasks likeRead More

Haiti Anthropological Brief: Myth of Land Fragmentation in Haiti

A common explanation one hears from educated Haitians and NGO workers alike for increasing rural poverty is land fragmention. As the argument goes, growing population has meant that heirs to Haitian farms have found themselves with increasingly smaller parcels of land. The evidence is, of course, growing population. The population of Haiti in 1950 wasRead More

The Haitian Market System

There are two principal market channels in Haiti by which food reaches consumers: the informal internal rotating marketing system that evolved dealing principally in local produce, and the formal import economy that evolved in association with imported goods. These two principal market distribution channels supply a third channel, the increasingly important food preparation specialists. AnyoneRead More

Street Food in Haiti

This article describes and attempts to explain the recent growth in Haiti’s street food cottage industries. Underlying the growth in street foods is urbanization and challenges that come with it. The challenges can be summed up as, “The Food Preparation Conundrum,” which can be further broken down into problems that the the street food industryRead More

Prepackaged Industrial Snack Food Industry in Haiti

Imported snack foods are another solution to what I have defined elsewhere as the Food Preparation Conundrum (The Storage problem, The Water Problem, The Fuel Problem, The Labor Problem) that has come about with rapid urbanization of the past 50 years. They are inexpensive, ready to eat, available everywhere, have a long shelf-life and areRead More

Fair Wage in Haiti (Academic Version)

First published as a report commissioned by the ITC (International Trade Center/Ethical Fashion Initiative, November 2012) INTRODUCTION This white paper examines the concept of a “fair wage” in the context of the cost of living and the prevailing wage scale within in Haiti. It concludes with a recommended wage scale for the artisan sector. FAIRRead More

Fair Wages in Haiti (Short Version)

Fallacies In understanding a “fair wage” a couple fallacies should be recognized. First, official unemployment rates for Haiti vary between 70 to 80 percent. Similarly, organizations such as the World Bank have estimated that over 50% of the Haitian population lives on less than $1 per day and as much as 80% lives on lessRead More

HAITI MANGO FACTS

While Haiti tree crops coffee and cacao have gone from being world leaders to close to no exports at all, mangos have gone the other direction, first becoming a Haiti export crop only in 1954 and then rising to the 2015 record season of 2.48 million boxes (4.5 kg/box). After Vetiver—contrary to claims, a veritableRead More

Mangos (TechnoServ/USAID/Coca Cola/IDB 2015)

This is an evaluation of Haiti Hope Mango Project, supported by USAID, Coca-Cola, and the IDB and implemented by TechnoServe from 2011 to 2015. The research was conducted under the auspices of Socio-Dig, a Haiti-based research company. I think the research is particularly useful for anyone interested in the Haiti agricultural sector and especially exports. The reportRead More

Irony of the Exports: Superiority of the Local Market for Haitian Mangoes

A closer look at evidence and trends in the market suggests that the local market for mangos is better than that of the export market. It offers producers more money. Indeed, to get mangos from producers, the exporters, their voltije and fourniseur agents have to resort to trickery and financial advances on trees 9 monthsRead More

Economy, Land & Markets