Honduras Coffee Farmer News January 2022
Photos and updates from Comayagua coffee families
Who grows your morning fix?
You want your food choices to support family farms and not hurt the planet. One way is to buy coffee from Farmer to Farmer. We are a non-profit solidarity organization based in Menomonie, Wisconsin, and we import organic coffee from a women’s cooperative near Huehuetenango, Guatemala and an organic cooperative in Comayagua, Honduras. We know the farmers, and we make sure we pay above fair-trade prices. Also, we use donations to fund scholarships and other work with the farmers and a weavers group in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala. We call what we do “direct trade,” and it ensures the most money from your coffee dollar ends up with the farmers.
I recently visited the farmers in Honduras for the first time since the pandemic. The general feeling is that while the pandemic was hard for people, especially in the cities, the rural areas were least affected. They told me stories of traveling to the nearby city and having a checkpoint where people would fumigate the vehicle and everyone in it with a bleach solution. The lockdown was intense and affected commerce, and thousands of people died in the Comayagua, while the rural areas lost one or two per village. Thankfully, none of our farmers or their families have passed from COVID, although many did get it. Everyone I visited had masks and wore them without complaint whenever close contact was warranted.
The farmers were mostly concerned about coffee rust, a disease that has been affecting farms more and more in the last ten years. This is related to climate change, because the disease spreads more in warmer years. This year, the rust is the worst they’ve seen in years, with crop losses of 50% or more. Much of our discussion focused on resistant varieties and organic fungicides and other ways to combat the rust. On the plus side, coffee prices are up worldwide, and the farmers could take some consolation in getting a better price for their work, even as yields are down.
We visited 12 families and at each family, I asked about the school aged children and how they have been through the pandemic. It has been a hard two years, with little in-person schooling happening in Honduras, and online learning not an option for the rural areas. We are all hopeful for the new school year, which just started.
Here are your farmers and some updates on their lives in 2022:
Roman Hernandez and Francesca Pineda. They have been with the co-op since the beginning in 2000.
Don Roman and Doña Francesca
The first farm we visited was Don Roman and Doña Francesca in Los Cedros, high above the city of Comayagua. Doña Francesca travels every day to the Comayagua to sell agricultural produce at the town market. While we were on the tour with their son Eduin, we were gifted some of the special anise avocados that Francesca is known for. Farmer to Farmer has been helping their youngest daughter Ada Cristina and their niece Fatima go to a boarding school in the city. The girls missed a year with COVID and then had a hard year in 2021, where they were at school, but taking online classes — the worst situation for them because they were separated from their family but also didn’t get the benefit of in-person teaching. This year promises to be different, with in person teaching, and the young women are committed to returning to school.
Above. Left: They said this coffee they are saving for F2F. They pick it special to only send us the best quality. It takes more time. but they are proud of the results and we are happy with the higher price F2F pays.
Right photo: Doña Francesca in their new coffee drying shed. Even though we were high on the mountain, it was HOT in the little drying greenhouse.
Above: The Ramirez family (only part of it).
Don Marcos Ramirez
Don Marcos is also one of the original members in the co-op. He and his family live in El Matazano, a community lower on the mountain. The lower you go on the mountain, the worse the coffee rust has been (due to warmer temperatures), and Marcos is having a tough year with coffee. He has a little general store at his house and also keeps bees, so he has more than one source of income. When we did a census of school aged children, Marcos did not have any kids in school, but counted an impressive eight grandchildren in school.
Above: Benito (Stripes), and Mancho with his family, talking in the coffee shed
Benito and Mancho Perez
In the community of Las Moras, there are two brothers who have gone all-in for organic coffee. The Perez brothers share the work of growing and processing their coffee. Benito is the only bachelor in the co-op, and Mancho (Maximo) and his wife Sandra Fulnes have three children, Jesica, Maximo Junior, and Eliar Benjamin. The rust hit them hard too, but they will have coffee to send. They wanted to express gratitude for Farmer to Farmer aid that was sent after Hurricanes Eta and Iota hit their community. Benito’s house was destroyed, and you can see in the photo them posing in front of the recently rebuilt house.
Above: Patrocinio and Orsis and their family.
Patrocinio Sanchez and Osiris Gutierrez
Patrocinio and Osiris also live in Las Moras. They had a scary night during Hurricane Iota, where major landslides came close to their home and they lost one wall of their house. They contemplated leaving, but their whole earning potential is tied up in their farm, so they decided to stay and rebuild their house. Patrocinio got emotional when he expressed gratitude for the support Farmer to Farmer sent immediately after the hurricanes. He said you find out who your friends are in a crisis. The harvest will be less because of the rust and lingering damage from the hurricanes, but there will be some coffee to send.
Above: Melvin and daughter left, Adalid, Suyapa (holding her granddaughter) and Hansel right
Above: Melvin (green shirt) built a new coffee roaster for his brother Alex’s (middle) business. Also pictured the old roaster in action.
Doña Cirula. She works hard.
Above: Cirula’s grandkids who live with her, Senya and Michael. Their mother died in a landslide.
Doña Cirula
While in Rio Negro, we visited Doña Cirula. Even though it has been years since she sent coffee with the co-op, they keep her on the rolls. She is a single mother and grandmother and her story is a testament to importance of coffee for families. When we first visited, her house was tiny. Over the years she has added to her house, and now her two sons have built houses on the property too. They now have a road, passable by motorcycle, and Farmer to Farmer has helped them install a micro-hydroelectric system on a nearby stream. They make extra money charging batteries for neighbors. Despite all this, the 2022 harvest was drastically less due to coffee rust. We saw rows of bags full of underripe coffee they had to pick, because the rust was going to make ripening the crop impossible. The underripe coffee can be ripened off the plant, but it takes time and effort and the end result is low value. We surveyed the grandchildren who were sorting coffee when we visited, and only two are in school. The others have graduated elementary and are unable to continue.
above: Familia Euceda
Don Polo Euceda
Leopolo Euceda has been sending coffee to Farmer to Farmer since we first started buying from the co-op. His family’s farm is on the south side of the mountain in the village of El Tamarindo. The south side of the mountain is in the rain shadow, so instead of lush broadleaf vegetation, El Tamarindo is surrounded by pine and oak forest. We made a brief stop to visit on the way up to visit other farms. Don Polo doesn’t have any school-age children, but has eight grandchildren in school. This year they don’t have much coffee to send, the rust and the broca (an insect) hit hard.
Doña Juan with her grandson in her coffee field.
Doña Juana
We were happy to visit Doña Juana Zavala’s farm for the first time. She lives in El Horno, but her farm is in El Sute, the next village over. It was quite a hike! Her husband Alexis Gonzales was killed in a logging accident two years ago and she took over the farm. She sent some very high quality coffee last year. She was happy to show us the coffee, although her organic plot is struggling.