History of the Catracha Project
Catracha Coffee Company was established in 2010, when Mayra Orellana-Powell realized her dream of starting a coffee business that would have an impact in the small community of Santa Elena where she was born and raised. Mayra named her business Catracha Coffee Company because “Catracha” is a nickname for a Honduran woman.
Finding Santa Elena
What a geography teacher dealing in facts says:
The municipality of Santa Elena is located in the department of La Paz, which shares a border with El Salvador in western Honduras. The municipality has approximately 88 square miles and a population of 14,800. Coffee is grown between 1,500 and 1,800 meters above sea level.
What Jason says:
Holy Shit! Santa Elena is located in one of the most remote coffee producing regions in Central America. Accessed by a network of paved and mostly dirt mountain roads, it is a minimum 6-hour drive by bus or 4-wheel-drive vehicle from the Capital City of Tegucigulpa. The main square of Santa Elena consists of three blocks of basic straw, cement, and wood structures containing one school for young children that ends in 7th grade, a jail, a church, and a few other businesses that sell the most basic of necessities such as toilet paper, tires, and vegetables.
The Catracha Project in Action
The Catracha project is built around the ideals of opportunity, sustainability, and prosperity for small coffee farmers and the entire community of Santa Elena.
The capacity to produce great coffee equals the capacity to earn more income per pound. This concept may seem simple, but the production of great coffee involves a complex chain of events. Catracha Coffee offers capacity-building opportunities for farmers to improve upon their coffee production.
There are more than 400 farmers producing coffee in Santa Elena. Many of these coffee farmers sell their coffee (in cherry) to a middleman, ending the potential earnings associated with specialty coffee premiums.
Mario Vasquez and Old Soul…A Unique Partnership
Old Soul works directly with a variety of farmers who have a wide range of experience and expertise in producing specialty coffee. Mario, as a “newer” Specialty Coffee Farmer (he’s been coffee farming for 15 years, but only 10 harvests in Specialty), was on the lower end of the spectrum when it came to knowledge and resources. This is what has made the last ten years working with Mario so special and a truly unique and inspiring opportunity.
When we first spent time with Mario on his farm ten years ago, Mario produced almost no exportable quality coffee and mostly sold his cherries to a local Middle Man. Through hard work, continual farm infrastructure improvement projects and attending best practice seminars provided by Catracha, Mario has increased his exportable coffee this year to 40 bags of 86-88 pt. plus quality. As of now, Mario still works full time as a police officer in the Capitol to support his family. His dream is to be a full time coffee and cattle farmer, and we plan to help get him there!
Learn more about the Catracha Project Here: