“Building partnerships for coffee growing prosperity.” This was the main action point taken from this year’s  Summit for the Sustainability of Coffee Farming in the PROMECAFE region IV Edition, held in San Pedro Sula, Honduras 23 -26 November.

With more than 300 participants from across the coffee value chain, the event seeks, in a participatory way, a comprehensive analysis of the situation and challenges that impact coffee farming. GCP was represented by Carlos Brando, Chair of the GCP Board who contributed as speaker and panel moderator. He was accompanied by the GCP Honduras team, Guillermo Alvarado Downing and Vivian Tejada.

The rich exchanges with Honduran GCP Members, partners as well as key coffee sector stakeholders focussed on GCP’s plans to work with the Honduran Coffee Sustainability Platform on innovative approaches to reduce costs of coffee production/harvesting as way to increase smallholders’ income from coffee. This focus proved to be well aligned with Promecafés efforts to constitute a roadmap for the sector that support the progress towards prosperity and social, economic and environmental sustainability for coffee farming in the Mesoamerican region.

Building partnerships for coffee growing prosperity

During the event, Brando presented on the use of technology to improve efficiency in coffee harvesting. Using rich examples from Brazil, Brando showed how coffee producers in the region can reduce costs using various harvesting mechanisms and the importance of diversification of productive activities at the coffee farms. Brando also shared insights on how the internal market could be an alternative for new economic income, sharing findings from GCP’s work in the region.

The event highlighted the importance of collaborative work and establishment of alliances – a tenant at the core of GCP’s work in the region.