About This Coffee
The Asociación de Mujeres Productoras de Café La Labor (AMPROCAL) was founded in 2007 by 10 women. The women wanted to highlight the efforts of female coffee growers in Honduras and ensure they receive fair prices for their hard work. AMPROCAL is the only association in the region with 100% female producers.
While many women are involved in coffee cultivation, they don’t have the same access to land ownership as men and are often not listed as landowners on coffee farms. AMPROCAL seeks to highlight the efforts of female coffee growers and support them as they produce high-quality specialty coffees.
The women in the group are focused on producing specialty coffees that are Fairtrade and Organic certified. They are constantly learning new techniques and processes and share their knowledge with each other.
AMPROCAL also provides microfinancing for members to start their own businesses. Rural people and women in particular are often excluded from the traditional banking system. Typically, this means that they are unable to access credit at fair rates. AMPROCAL addresses this issue by providing financing to members at fair rates. Members have used this support to found their own businesses, mainly making handmade items like woven fabric and clothing.
Beneficio San Marcos support AMPROCAL members as they have expanded their group to include several important projects. They have a school called “Manitas en Café” where the children of coffee growers can go to learn and play during the harvest. This school helps prevent child labor while making it possible for their parents to work on the farm during the busy harvest season.
AMPROCAL works with the International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA).
Cultivation
AMPROCAL has a department that provides technical assistance and agronomic advice to farmers. By accessing agronomic support, members can improve their farms’ productivity and sustainability, which also increased their income. AMPROCAL focuses on ensuring that coffee production is environmentally sustainable by teaching members different production techniques, including how to make their own solid and sprayable organic fertilizers.
To increase farm productivity and promote greater food security, AMPROCAL has worked with Root Capital to start a resilience and climate change project that encourages members to develop family gardens and more organic fertilizer production. With small gardens that grow a variety of foods, families can increase their food security and reduce their dependence and spending on purchased food items. Farmers have planted fruit trees, legumes and other edible plants.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Coffee is selectively handpicked and pulped the same day. Coffee is then fermented for 12 to 18 hours and washed in clean water. Parchment is laid to sundry for 4 to 7 days.
SHG
Strictly High Grown (SHG) specifies the altitude at which the coffee was grown. A coffee must be grown at 1,200 meters above sea level or higher to be considered SHG. The higher altitude and lower temperatures mean that the coffee fruit matures more slowly, creating a denser bean.
European Preparation (EP)
EP stands for European Preparation. EP beans are Screen 15+ with a low defect tolerance.
Coffee in Honduras
Honduras is a small yet mighty coffee producer. The country boasts the largest per capita coffee production in the world. Beginning in 2017, Honduras began placing in third place for Arabica production volume globally. For this slot, they compete with Ethiopia—a country 10 times larger than Honduras. The two countries trade between third and fourth place annually, but the achievement is impressive, nonetheless.
Honduras has everything it needs to become a premier specialty coffee producer. The country has the right growing conditions, abundant fertile soils and soaring altitudes (nearly all farms are at more than 1,000 meters above sea level), plus a variety of microclimates.
Beginning in the early 2000s the industry began to focus on quality. Improved infrastructure (better mechanical dryers, centralized wet mills, an increasing number of solar dryers), quality control/assurance trainings (separating lots by qualities, cupping schools, etc.), the rise of specialty-focused exporters, increased volumes of certified coffees and the strengthening cooperative movement all have worked in tandem to make Honduran coffee ‘one to watch’.
It is only in more recent years that coffee production in Honduras has reached specialty levels comparable to other Central American countries, but specialty roasters are responding with enthusiasm. In 2017, a lot in the Cup of Excellence garnered the highest price ever paid for a Cup of Excellence coffee in any country: $124.50 per pound (approximately $56.50 per kg).
Above all, while Honduras increasingly offers high end microlots, what the country arguably represents overall is exceptional value. Quality has improved massively over the last 15 years, and in addition to unique specialty lots, the country offers very solid, clean blenders at very attractive prices.