HONDURAS | WALTER ARGUETA - WASHED

Washed Catuia from Walter Argueta in Santa Elena, Honduras

Sourcing Details

Walter Argueta has a 4-acre farm called La Violin in the community of Aguasinga, near where he lives with his wife and children.  In prior years, Walter sold his family's coffee cherry to the local middleman. Over the last few years, Walter has worked with Catracha Coffee.  During this time, he has improved his farm management practices by using lime to control the pH of his soil, fertilizing with organic compost, and spraying organic fungicides to control levels of leaf rust.  These actions have improved the health of his farm and the quality of his coffee production.  

Processing Details

Walter has also learned to process his coffee using his micro-mill so that he can depulp, ferment, and dry it before delivering it to Catracha Coffee. After harvesting, selected ripe cherries are macerated overnight and de-pulped the next day. They are then fermented in a cement tank for 24 hours, washed, and placed on raised beds to dry over a 15-day period.

Social impact

Mayra Orellana-Powell founded Catracha Coffee Company to connect her coffee-growing community with roasters. Ten years later, Catracha Coffee gained momentum, with more than 80 producers and 20 roasters working together on sustainable relationships and a profit-sharing model. The model consistently paid at least $2.00 per pound directly to producers. This extra income helps increase each producer’s capacity to reinvest in their farm and, over time, increase their standard of living.  

The sale of Catracha Coffee also creates income for a non-profit called Catracha Community (a 501(1)(c)(3) nonprofit), which invests in income diversification opportunities without taking resources from a farmer’s bottom line. 

Catracha Community hosts workshops for women and youth to learn craft-making skills. Like the coffee, the focus is on quality. With the help of talented volunteers, the group has been able to make many beautiful things and sell them through our network of coffee friends. They even have a name for the group: Catracha Colectivo.  

Catracha Community has also established an art residence and studio in Santa Elena to host artists from Honduras and worldwide.   These artists have been running art classes two days a week.  Every week, more than 30 children come and learn art.  Art is now popping up everywhere around Santa Elena.  There are more than 30 murals along the streets of Santa Elena, in people’s homes, and at many schools.

Catracha Community also funds gardening projects throughout Santa Elena, which includes a seed bank and support from an agronomist who provides technical advice to families starting gardens. 

Funds from Catracha Community also support a local tree nursery, which produces 50,000 trees each year for Santa Elena’s communities and individuals asking for trees. Funds are also used in coordination with students at the agroforestry high school in Santa Elena to give technical support for tree planting and follow-up cleaning and maintenance.