Marta is a forty-three year old coffee producer who was born and raised in San Sebastián, Lempira. She attended primary school but only finished the sixth grade; after that, she helped in her house with all the domestic duties and occasionally some of the agricultural activities of her father. At eighteen, she got married to Daniel Pascual; two years later, they decided to cultivate coffee with one of her cousins, who taught them the process. Marta’s father-in-law gave them a house and some land as inheritance; Marta and her husband started by planting 1,500 coffee plants of the varieties Bourbon, Yellow Paca and Ihcafé 90. Back then, Marta used to carry out the coffee from El Curucio to San Sebastián on a mule, as there were no road available; now, they can transport the coffee by car during harvest seasons. Today Marta owns a 15.39 hectare property, with 8.0 hectares of coffee, producing 70 to 90 bags per year, which she collects with the help of her family and 15 other people from the community. In addition, she has adopted better farm practices such as the treatment of water in an oxidation pond, reusing pulp waste to produce organic fertilizer, cleaning the farm manually with machete to avoid the use of herbicides, planting timber and fruit trees, among others, in order to protect the environment.
Country of Origin
Honduras
Harvest Season
2021/22
Coffee Grade
HND CA WA SHG
Bag Type
Grain Pro / Ecotact
Plant Species
Arabica
Processing
Washed
Variety
IHCAFE 90, Lempira
Region
El Curucio, San Sebastian, Lempira
Farm Name
Los Planes
Soil
Clay / Sandy
History of Coffee in Honduras
Prior to 1900, coffee was essentially a garden crop in Honduras, grown on small lots of land and traded within the country for internal consumption. Less than 10 percent of the coffee harvested was exported in 1894. By 1900, exports had more than doubled, but banana was still king. A decline in banana production over the decades coincided with a slow but steady growth in coffee production. Today, Honduras is the largest coffee producer in Central America, exporting more than 5 million bags last year, and is one of the largest exporters of specialty grade coffee.
Growing Coffee in Honduras
Honduras is somewhat unique in that it experienced the most significant growth in export volume after the emergence of the specialty coffee industry, so new farmers and new mills begin with quality as their goal. Coffee is now pervasive in Honduras, grown in 210 of the 298 municipalities and throughout central and coastal highlands within six districts identified as Coffee Regions. Starting in the north and moving south, the regions are Copan, Opalaca, Montecillos, Comayagua, El Paraiso, and Agalta. More than 60 percent of Honduras coffee is grown above 12 hundred meters and as high as 16 hundred. Almost 90 percent of Honduras coffee is grown on small (less than 153 bags) and medium (between 153 and 766 bags) sized farms. Virtually all Honduras coffee (over 90 percent) is washed and sun dried. Plant varieties include Cautuai, Caturra, Bourbon, Typica, and Pacas.
