Tegucigalpa, Honduras, July 27 - Honduras is working on a program to train small coffee farmers to take more care picking and depulping beans, hoping to reverse the country's reputation for mediocre quality.
Honduran Coffee Institute (IHCAFE) consultant Francisco Oseguera said the program would focus on getting farmers to separate different types of coffee bean and improve their processing methods to improve quality.
"We are promoting a program to help small farmers with preparing their coffee," Oseguera told Reuters. "We want to organize them so that we can train them in the management of the wet (depulping) process in the coffee-growing zones."
Honduras is Central America's No. 2 coffee exporter but does not enjoy its neighbors' reputation for high quality.
Coffee from the country's 2004/05 harvest received 3 cents less per pound, on average, than the floor price for coffee on the New York Board of Trade.
"Farmers mix different qualities, which makes the country have these conventional coffees that the international market doesn't value, and results in our coffee being used as filler," Oseguera said.
"We have a lot of work to do in the wet processing phase so that the coffee is depulped the same day (as it is picked) and not the day after, keeping the bean from fermenting," he said.
Over-fermentation can ruin the taste of the coffee. Beans can also be spoiled by starting the process of depulping coffee cherries too late, or by poor handling of the extracted beans.
Honduras' reliance on small producers and processing facilities make it especially susceptible to problems.
Oseguera said Honduras aims to lift processing standards within five years and erase the price penalty on its coffee.
For the 2005/06 October-September harvest, Honduras expects to export more than 2.8 million 60-kg bags of coffee.