history of Honduras
Image source: Royal Coffee
Coffee came to Honduras in the 1700s by way of European coffee traders, coinciding with the spread of slavery across Latin America. Initially, coffee was produced in small quantities by small scale farmers, and large scale cultivation of coffee began in the latter half of the 20th century.
Support from the United States Agency for International Development spurred development of the coffee industry in Honduras. In the 1960s, the International Coffee Agreement was formed to help vulnerable countries, such as Honduras, maintain profitability while producing coffee. Shortly after this, in the 1970s, the Honduran government created the Honduran Coffee Institute, or Instituto Hondureño del Café (IHCAFE), a non-profit focused on developing local coffee production, promoting technical improvements, and providing credit to farmers.
In 1998, Hurricane Mitch hit Honduras creating major destruction and wiping out 80% of Honduras’s crops, including the vast majority of their coffee plants. Just one year later, coffee prices dropped dramatically internationally, greatly impacting the Honduran coffee industry.
Since then, the Honduran coffee industry has recovered. Now thriving, Honduras is the world's 7th largest coffee grower globally. The success of the Honduran coffee industry comes in part from the ability to grow coffee at a higher altitudes, producing a better tasting bean. The coffee industry in Honduras creates over a million jobs during harvesting season, which is instrumental in the Honduran economy.
Though the coffee industry has improved Honduras in many ways, there is a darker side to the industry. Child labor remains a significant problem in Honduras. Women and children are often hired exclusively as seasonal workers, which allows major farm owners to pay them even less than what men are paid, preventing any socio-economic mobility. IHCAFE, along with International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Honduran Council of Private Enterprise (COHEP), have initiated a new project to address child labor in Honduras. The project intends to implement a social compliance system to eradicate and prevent child labor while improving working conditions for all coffee workers.
