How We Define Specialty Coffee: Producer Perspectives
On February 12, 2022, we co-hosted a panel event on the topic of defining specialty coffee. The conversation was prompted by an online discussion group, Facticity Coffee Club, in response to the SCA White Paper “Towards a Definition of Specialty Coffee: Building an Understanding Based on Attributes.” After various separate discussions with different producers, we chose to collaborate with the Honduras chapter of the International Women’s Coffee Alliance to make the conversation more public, and also highlight the important fact that coffee producers should be in the driver’s seat when it comes to complex definitions that have an impact on the global marketplace.
Invited panelists include:
Orieta Pinto, a third-generation coffee producer. As a food scientist, her work has been focused on quality systems and she has learned to love coffee, not only for what it is but for the wonderful people throughout the production chain. In December 2020 she was elected president of IWCA Honduras, and she says it has been life-changing getting to know the wonderful women who decided to make changes.
Delmy Regalado, a Coffee producer of Finca La Fortuna and Finca Liquidambar. She is the General manager of Beneficio San Marcos, and also a member of the Women’s Association AMPROCAL. She was the financial manager for COCAFELOL, a coffee cooperative in Ocotepeque, Honduras, for 15 years. She was also president of IWCA Honduras for 5 years, running projects and training programs to support the financial sustainability of women in Honduran coffee-growing communities.
Karla Boza, a specialty coffee farmer at Finca San Antonio Amatepec in El Salvador and a Program Fellow at The Chain Collaborative. Karla is currently pursuing an M.S. Geography degree at Virginia Tech and researching the different barriers farmers encounter when entering the specialty market. Karla uses research to merge her passions for coffee, feminism, and transparency in the coffee industry. Additionally, Karla is a Board Member of the Denomination of Origin (DO) Bálsamo Quezaltepec, which aims to protect the mountain range's coffee. In her spare time, Karla has volunteered with Cup of Excellence, Grounds for Empowerment, and NCBA CLUSA’s Farmer-to-Farmer. Karla is also an SCA LEAD Scholar and in 2021 she received a Sprudgie for the category of “Notable Coffee Producer.”
Diana Osorto. For almost a decade Diana Osorto worked on a project to support the improvement of competitiveness of small scale coffee producers in Honduras, financed by the Spanish Agency for International Development and IHCAFE, including important activities such as the creation of training schools, support for the start-up of the national coffee quality centre, recognition of DO Marcala first Denomination of Origin of Honduras and Central America, Strengthening of associations and coffee cooperatives, as well as support actions in the national and international promotion of coffee. She is a founding partner of IWCA Honduras, and currently the Coffee Coordinator of SEAGRO, a company that provides supplies and equipment for coffee processing and storage. Also manages her own brand of Services HONDURIGEN "Honduran origins and their people" from where she carries out volunteer work to support the promotion of Honduran Coffee.
We are grateful to The Wond’ry Coffee Equity Lab at Vanderbilt University for generously hosting us on Zoom, which allowed for live translation of this conversation. We would also like to thank IWCA Honduras, Facticity Coffee Club, and translators Jes Ballard Forero and Nadia Rojas Salgado.
Watch the recording here.