Alcatel-Lucent Enables Haitian Coffee Plantations
May 31, 2007
Alcatel-Lucent has signed a 2-year cooperation agreement with Cafés Malongo, the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis and Haiti's mobile telephone operator ComCEL to offer broadband Internet access to the isolated rural areas of Cap Rouge in Haiti. The project called, "Tra abilite du Cafe" (Coffee Traceability), will give Haiti's coffee cooperatives Internet access from their plantations using WiMAX and RFID technologies.
The partnership hopes the plantations will use the new system to better monitor coffee production, trace their fair trade labeled products and take more control over the supply chain. The four partners have mutually supportive roles to ensure that this cooperative venture in Haiti succeeds.