About This Coffee
RAOS began their journey over 25 years ago, and since then, coffee has been a unifying force for them. Through hard work and dedication, they have empowered their women producers to believe in the potential of this bean, seeing it as a realm of possibilities to enhance coffee quality and improve their households' well-being. Coffee and people have always guided their steps, and together, they bring a cup brimming with stories to share.
RAOS is proud to have 78 active women producers, with 40% holding leadership positions, collectively forming a women's lot. Since 2015, they have been working with specially curated lots from women. Continuous training has been provided to these women, enabling their active involvement in the preparation of specialty coffees. This fosters direct relationships with buyers for exporting women's lots and contributing to micro-lot production. Collaborating with the Gender Committee, their vision encompasses reflecting gender equality strengths, ensuring sustainability, and fostering internal and external projections through inclusive actions that guarantee women's participation.
Cultivation
At RAOS, the cultivation of coffee is guided by a commitment to organic practices and sustainability. Their journey in producing organic coffee began in the 1990s and has been accompanied by continuous training and the exchange of experiences in organic agriculture. This dedication serves as a space for learning and affirmation within their cooperative. By prioritizing the care and management of the environment, RAOS strives to harmonize entrepreneurial dynamism with environmental respect. They promote eco-friendly and earth-respecting farming techniques to foster harmony with nature and achieve self-sufficiency for the producing families. The mountainous soils in their region, characterized by a medium texture and a combination of clay, silt, and sand, provide an ideal foundation for growing coffee with exceptional quality. With their unwavering commitment to sustainability, RAOS contributes to the development of a thriving and environmentally conscious coffee cultivation industry.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
RAOS uses various drying methods for their coffee. This includes concrete patios, mechanical dryers, raised beds, solar dryers, and static dryers.
Sustainable Harvest
Sustainable Harvest® is a specialty coffee trader focusing primarily on bringing coffees to market that are sourced from smallholder farmer cooperatives in the supply chain such as indigenous communities, women groups and the next generation of coffee farmers.
Their sourcing model is built on transparency, traceability and direct relationships between quality-minded coffee roasters and best-in-class coffee producers. Sustainable Harvest® has an on-site presence at origin with staff in Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Peru. Each office coordinates their supply including quality management, supplier relationships, source development, logistics, training and capacity building.
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.