About This Coffee
A group of 20 producer in Octopeque, Honduras founded Cooperativa Cafetalera Ecológica La Labor Ocotepeque Limitada (Cocafelol) in 1999. The producers wanted to change local coffee culture by commercializing specialty coffee. They also wanted to focus on more environmentally sustainable coffee production. The cooperative attained USDA organic, UTZ and Fairtrade certifications by 2011. That same year, they began exporting their coffee themselves.
The cooperative supports member producers with a wide range of programs. Of the 585+ members, all are certified Fairtrade. About ¼ of members are certified organic. There are approximately 120 female members.
This Café de Mujeres lot comes from the female producers of Cocafelol. While women have historically played an important role in coffee cultivation, men overwhelming own coffee farms and control the profits from coffee production. Cocafelol is working to make coffee production more equitable by empowering female coffee producers. Through Cocafelol, women have access to training and professional development opportunities. With more knowledge of Good Agricultural Practices, women producers in Cocafelol are able to increase the profits from their coffee production and get recognized for their hard work.
Cultivation
They have a number of initiatives dedicated to helping improve coffee quality. They offer facilities for processing and milling cherry. They also provide clean storage locations for bagged green coffee. The cooperative trains their members in Best Agricultural Practices. They also offer financial support for their members through loans for farm maintenance, renovations for disease and more.
The cooperative’s fertilizer plant produces affordable organic fertilizers and sprays out of byproducts from pulping. Whereas most commercial fertilizers can cost around $50/45€ per bag, the cooperative is able to offer their fertilizers for only $1.50/1.35€ per bag.
Cocafelol is also ahead of its time environmentally. They are the first cooperative in Honduras to be carbon neutral. They achieved this in part thanks to the production of a biogas plant the cooperative constructed to produce biogas and bioethanol from plant waste.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Female farmers selectively handpick ripe, red cherry and deliver it to a central washing station run by Cocafelol. At intake, cherry is carefully recorded to keep each lot traceable to individual farmers. Cherry is pulped and fermented for 12 to 15 hours. Following fermentation, parchment is washed and laid on patios in the yard to dry. Parchment is raked frequently to ensure even drying. It takes approximately 7 days for parchment to dry.
Ensuring Coffee’s Future with Cocafelol
The cooperative is focused on improving their members’ livelihoods in the present and also paving the way for a continued future for their children. They have a cupping school that educates both children and adults in the practice of cupping. Having cupping skills is important when it comes to determining the quality of one’s coffee. When a farmer understands the value of their coffee to specialty buyers, they have more bargaining power and are more able to adjust their growing practices to improve their coffee quality in the future.
Witnessing their children demonstrating little interest in a future in coffee growing, Cocafelol members created a series of coffee-themed educational programs for their children. These programs, combined with the improved quality of life for members will hopefully encourage more growers’ children to follow in their footsteps. Additionally, Cocafelol staff regularly help members’ children with their homework because the cooperative believes that if children succeed in school they will also succeed in life.
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.