Honduras Santa Elena Catracha David Argueta – 31969 – GrainPro Bags – SPOT RCWHSE

Coffee Background

This micro-lot was produced by David Argueta, one of the youngest members of the Catracha producer group and a welcome shot of youthful energy.  David attends monthly educational seminars where Catracha provides guidance for farm management, harvesting and coffee processing that is focused on quality. Traditionally, farmers in Santa Elena have sold their coffee in cherry to a middleman, eliminating the possibility of earning better prices based on the quality of the coffee.  Over the last few years, David has improved his farm management practices using lime to control the pH of the soil, fertilizing with organic compost, and spraying organic fungicides to control levels of leaf rust.  These actions have improved the health of her farm and the quality of his coffee production.  In addition to coffee, David is a serious beekeeper who is fascinated with the local species of bees, so much so that he builds custom beehives for them and keeps them close to his house.

Processing details

David has maintained a lot of the Typica cultivar that has been part of his farm for generations.  This heirloom has diminished in popularity among farms because of its lower yield and vulnerability to leaf rust, but David enjoys the challenge.  After harvesting, selected ripe cherries were floated and macerated overnight, the next day the cherries were depulped and fermented in a cement tank for 24 hours, washed and placed on raised beds to dry over a 15 day period and then delivered to Catracha Coffee.

Social impact

Mayra Orellana-Powell founded Catracha Coffee Company to connect her coffee growing community with roasters. Ten years later, Catracha Coffee has gained momentum with more than 80 producers and 20 roasters working together on sustainable relationships and a profit sharing model, which has consistently paid at least $2.00 per pound directly to producers. This extra income helps increase each producer’s capacity to reinvest in their farm, and overtime, increase their standard of living.

The sale of Catracha Coffee also creates income for a non-profit called Catracha Community (a 501(1)(c)(3) nonprofit), which invests in income diversification opportunities without taking resources from a farmer’s bottomline.

Catracha Community hosts workshops for women and youth to learn craft making skills.  Like the coffee, the focus is on quality.  With the help of talented volunteers, the group has been able to make many beautiful things and sell them through our network of coffee friends. They even have a name for the group, Catracha Colectivo.

Catracha Community has also established an art residence and studio in Santa Elena to host artists from Honduras and around the world.   These artists have been running art classes two days a week.  Every week more than 30 children come and learn art.  Art is now popping up everywhere around Santa Elena.  There are more than 30 murals along the streets of Santa Elena, in peoples homes, and at many schools.

Catracha Community also funds gardening projects throughout Santa Elena.  David Benitez, a Catracha Coffee producer, agronomist and school teacher, provides technical advice to families starting gardens.  David is also growing seedlings and distributing to families, which has helped make seed more productive and easier for families to succeed at producing vegetables.

Funds from Catracha Community also support a local tree nursery, which produces 50,000 trees each year for Santa Elena’s communities and individuals asking for trees.  Funds are also used in coordination with students at the agroforestry highschool in Santa Elena to give technical support for tree planting and follow- up cleaning and maintenance.