Sustainable and gender-based coffee from Honduras to Ethiopia

By Bufete Mejía & Asociados

Honduras, Colombia and Ethiopia are among the ten largest coffee exporters in the world, with a long tradition of coffee production and economies highly dependent on this product. For this reason, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) organized from October 5 to 15, 2022, the I International Meeting on Coffee, an activity in which women producers from the three countries shared knowledge on sustainable productive coffee practices.

The activity was carried out as part of the DeSIRA initiative (Development Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture), which contributes to climate-relevant, productive and sustainable transformation of agriculture and food systems in low and middle-incomes countries.

Some of the discussed topics were:

-Research and innovation in agricultural and food systems.
-Research infrastructure conducive to innovation. 
-Knowledge and evidence to feed policy design. 

Coffee is central to the Honduran economy with more than one hundred thousand families dedicated to its production in 15 of the 18 departments of Honduras; coffee represents 30% of agricultural GDP and 5% of total GDP. Coffee production generates more jobs than any other crop and generates more foreign exchange than any other activity. Honduras is currently ranked the fifth largest coffee producer in the world.