GCP speaks to Julia Betina Vásquez, General Manager of ANACAFEH, the Asociación Nacional de Caficultores de Honduras, and learns more about the benefits of collective action in tackling sustainability issues.
The Asociación Nacional de Caficultores de Honduras, ANACAFEH, was founded in 1987 as a non-profit, permanent, union-type civil association. Since then, the association has attempted to unite all coffee producers to find common solutions to shared cultivation problems, production challenges and other farm-related issues. ANACAFEH also represents coffee producers in decentralized institutions related to the national coffee activity.
Today, the association has approximately 40,000 members, most of them small producers, who are provided with technical, financial, social and other necessary assistance to enhance their farms.
“Coffee cultivation is really important for Honduran society,” says Julia Betina Vásquez, General Manager of ANACAFEH. “The coffee activity in Honduras is in the hands of more than 120,000 families, of which 95% are small coffee farmers, generating income for all the actors in the coffee value chain.”
However, due to socioeconomic problems and climate change impacts, challenges continue to grow. “That is why we are convinced that the only way to continue growing coffee is to implement sustainable coffee farming techniques and to search for that balance between environmental resources and economic benefit.”
ANACAFEH believes that broad scale training is essential to the optimization of resources on coffee farms in Honduras. “We must train the entire coffee sector to acquire this knowledge that allows them to generate quality production without bringing to naught the environment.”
This kind of knowledge sharing and collaboration is important not only for coffee sustainability in Honduras, but could benefit others beyond its borders. “That is one of the reasons for joining the Global Coffee Platform – to reaffirm our commitment to coffee producers by publicizing their great work to promote the development of sustainable coffee farming in Honduras.’
“Our relationship with GCP helps us grow as an association and allows us to become known internationally. We wish to form alliances with other national or international organizations that share our objective of supporting the coffee producers and generating greater economic benefit for all.”
– Julia Betina Vásquez, ANACAFEH
