COCAFELOL

COCAFELOL was founded in La Labour, Ocotepeque, and has been working diligently on behalf of their coffee producers since 2000, providing technical and financial assistance. Its main focus is to produce, process and market high quality and differentiated coffee. They have invested heavily in organic production.

The organisation is keen to promote sustainable agricultural practices; using chromatography, they are performing sophisticated soil analyses to deduce how best to improve the quality of organic matter and what products to use. The coffee husks processed at their wet mill are combined with minerals and naturally occurring fungus and broken down into an organic compost that can be applied back to the farms. This is provided free to their members and is sold to local vegetable producers as an extra source of income. Last year(2019) they provided 30,000 bags free. The honey water (waste from processing) is also viewed as a raw material and converted in to liquid compost too. From the waste pulp and honey water they are able to create over 30 types of fertilizer. The brand that sits behind all of this was set up using the money from the Fairtrade premiums they have earned.

During harvest when the coffee is at its optimum ripeness, the product is collected manually before being sent to centralised washing stations for pulping, washing and drying process according to the quality desired.