Centam Coffee - Lenca Indians Help Honduras Coffee Quality
Date: 21-Feb-07
Country: HONDURAS
Author: Gustavo Palencia
The Lenca are about to ship the first thousand or so sacks of strictly quality controlled coffee from the Montecillos Marcala growing area since it was recognized in Honduras as an "appellation" style region in 2005.
It was the first area in Central America to register its produce under an wine-style regional label, following the strengthening of intellectual property laws in the region in recent years.
According to the Honduran property registry, the beans, grown above 1,200 meters, offer "flavors of orange, sweet peach, lively and intense acidity and a creamy, smooth and clean body."
The label gives Honduras a powerful weapon in its campaign to shake off once and for all a reputation for selling bad-tasting coffee in bulk.
Honduras exported 2.9 million 60-kg bags of coffee in 2005/06, only behind Central America's top exporter Guatemala, with 3.35 million bags.
But unlike Guatemala, which has progressively raised the cup quality of its coffee and in return receives a healthy premium for every bag sold, Honduran beans actually sell for less than the benchmark New York Board of Trade "C" contract price.
Honduras is already on a big push to up its coffee exports, replanting aging trees and selling discounted fertilizer to farmers with the aim of exporting 6.9 million bags in 2011/12.
But now coffee authorities have realized it is time they made better use of the ideal growing conditions offered in parts of the country, and focus on quality too.
"Honduras has to take this matter very seriously to earn credibility," said Francisco Tomas, who heads a coffee project run a by the Spanish government's aid group, which funded the appellation scheme.
"The country can not continue indefinitely selling a generic product for blends," he said.
BEAN SIZE
The Montecillos Marcala label came after a rigorous identification process aimed at stopping impostors selling beans disguised as one of Honduras' top graded coffees.
In the last 10 years Marcala began to lose prestige among the world's gourmet buyers because so many lower quality regions were selling their beans under the same name.
Claudio Santos says the new label allows buyers to precisely trace the origin of each sack of beans, as well as giving them detailed information about the farms they were grown on.
Buyers will have access to data about the picking, processing, cup quality and even size of the beans, Santos said.
Honduran coffee growers say the Montecillos Marcala certification is just the start, and plan to register four more origin specific regions in the next six years.
"This will allow us to export between 690,000 and 766,000 60-kg bags under the origin guarantee seal," said Honduran Coffee Institute executive David Valeriano.
Santos said by guaranteeing quality, farmers will lock in a better price for their beans.
"We hope that because of its guaranteed quality, it will garner straight off at least $10 per bag over the market price," he said.
The Lenca are related to but not descended directly from the Maya. About 100,000 Lenca live in Honduras, one of the largest indigenous groups in the country.