Honduran Coffee Cooperative Volunteer Mission
Cocacenel painting on their water reservoir.
The Northern Crops Institute’s Food Scientist, Dr. Brent Trela, recently spent time on a volunteer trip through Farmer-to-Farmer Volunteer Program in Honduras from May 29th to June 11th. This opportunity was supported by USAID, Engineers Without Borders, National Cooperative Business Association-CLUSA International, Jicatuyo Foundation, and Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung (HRNS), and was hosted by Cooperativa Cafetalera Cerro Negro Ltd. (Cococenel), Mercedes, Ocotepeque, Honduras.
Cocacenel administrative team and volunteer.
The goal of the trip was to identify, evaluate, and improve the efficiency limitations of the facilities and production process of Cococenel, a 68-member Honduran coffee cooperative. Throughout the trip, discussions with facilities management and workshops with management and members were held to diagnose processes and equipment, and reach potential solutions. In conclusion, production improvements included a creation of optimized flowcharts, improved operation methods, and equipment maintenance and calibration instruction.
Dr. Brent Trela talks more about his experience in Honduras with the Farmer-to-Farmer program below.
Why did you choose to become involved in the Farmer-to-Farmer Volunteer Program?
The Farmer-to-Farmer Volunteer Program aligns with my mission to engage the world inclusively and individually through agriculture and education, reducing isolation, and improving the security of communities challenged with few resources or know-how. As a world traveler, I highly value engaging and interacting with the world both for the insights and knowledge I gain as for what I hope and endeavor to contribute to the dialog and DOING, through presence and agriculture. These efforts reduce discrimination and widen the family of man. All of these things improve regional understanding and appreciation of America, improving world security and ours.
Give an example of a success during this assignment:
In front of a coffee depulper.
Engaging the workshop participants, gaining their attention and interaction with the content. I particularly appreciated their realization and buy-in that the discussed details will improve process efficiency and serve as a marketing tool to convey Cococenel’s process more effectively and positively to purchasers of their product.
What is your previous work experience in this project area?
I have more than 30 years of experience working with fruit and processing it into beverages but previously didn’t apply those efforts to coffee. There are many similarities between processing coffee cherries for coffee and wine making fruits, but the end goals are very different. In coffee, subtracting the fruit to obtain the seed is paramount, whereas achieving the liquid and eliminating the seed and other solids are winemaking priorities. As a food scientist focusing on beverages, I am familiar with the metabolic precursors and chemical compounds of coffee.
Coffee beans (in parchment, not roasted).
Why did you apply for Farmer to Farmer?
I love the diversity of global agriculture and human culture- see 2). Working through F2F is a fantastic way to travel, immersing oneself in the culture, working in it to give benefit, and perhaps achieve a more intimate and profound understanding of the people and their ways than simply traipsing through as a 2-week tourist.
Would you recommend this program? Why?
Yes, absolutely and I do. I recommend F2F for the mutual benefits and rewards it offers the recipients, host, and their respective countries. Volunteering and travel both expand personal horizons, drawing one out from potentially insular and isolated outlooks that breed distrust and dystopia. F2F is all variations of we-to-we, and us-to-us, and not an us-vs-them or even an us-to-them charity. It is empowerment assistance for both. See 2) and 6).
What was your favorite day/activity/part of the program?
My favorite day and activity were the workshop where we presented our project efforts, and to some extent, could gauge our reach. It was a relief to finally produce a result and for that to be accepted by a larger group than the much smaller leadership with whom we worked prior to the meeting.
To read more details about the research of Dr. Trela’s volunteer trip, check out the report here.