Finca Las Marias, producing some of the best coffee in the world. Santa Barbara, Honduras – by Hal Malone
Click here to order Dario’s coffee today!
Coffee is more than critical business in the area that OCHO serves, in fact it’s virtually the only industry. Coffee is cultivated and harvested by most members of the community for the sustenance of their families: everyone’s immediate and long-range future depends on the success of every coffee harvest. Revenue from the sale of coffee in Atima and the Choloma region determines the quality of life in the towns where our patients live, and the region as a whole.
Unfortunately, the coffee economy is a fickle affair on the grower’s side. Too much or too little sun—or rain—can spell disaster for both the small family farmer and the coffee collectives. Smaller collectives within those countries, and smaller coffee countries, often get elbowed out of seller’s markets, or are burdened with lines of credit that absorb profit margins. There is an abundance of middlemen on both sides of the equator, each collecting their toll from the farmer.
The future of the region where OCHO works to improve health outcomes depends on good trade, good farming conditions, and good buying partners, as measured by fair prices for their product. The community’s health services are also tied to this delicate balance.
As board member and long time “OCHOAN” Patrick Ercole has pointed out, the sustainability of the area’s coffee industry is the means to create sustainability for OCHO’s medical brigade and for the community’s overall prosperity and health.
With this fact in mind, OCHO started with a modest 200 lb “test sample” of the region’s coffee in 2012 in order to develop a long-range collaboration. We contacted our coffee growing partners, visited their farms, and discussed selling their coffee in the U.S. to support our medical services in Honduras. This test was carried out with the help of Baltimore area coffee roasters, experienced importers, and coffee aficionados. That first 200 lbs. was an exciting entrée to the business of coffee roasting, distributing and marketing. Along the way we learned more about the lives of our partners in Honduras, and how to better tell their story to our supporters in Baltimore and beyond.
We have just obtained the 2nd batch of select coffee from the growers of Choloma and are ready to market it to continue this collaboration. All of the revenue from coffee sales, even at these exploratory phases, has funneled directly into improving the health and the lives of the coffee growers themselves. We’ve started the right way, by paying farmers 45% over the market rate in advance.
On November 1st, 2016, International coffee roasting company Illycafe, which sells coffee in 131 countries worldwide, honored our representative grower Dario Enamorado for his exceptional coffee at an international award ceremony. Like most of our partners in this remote mountainous region of Santa Barbara, Dario dreams of a country filled with opportunities for young and old, with adequate medical care and the ability to provide all the services that his people need.
Who wouldn’t want to join Dario in his dream by buying (and enjoying) his superior coffee?
Click here to order Dario’s coffee today!
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