22 La Bendicion Honduras 2023

My name is Mario Rolando Pineda. I am the owner of Finca "La Bendición" located on the Santa Bárbara Mountain at 1450 m.a.s.l., municipality of San José de Colinas, department of Santa Bárbara. It is a family farm, that is to say that all the members are involved in its care and maintenance. Our main objective is to produce high quality coffee, using environmentally friendly practices. Our crops are grown under the shade of timber trees such as guamo (Inga sp), Gravilea and Nogal and avocado trees such as “Anis” (Criollos) and “Sucte” (Persea schiedeana). We do not use agrochemical products to clean the coffee farm, since it is completely manual labor. This helps us to conserve the microflora and microfauna of the soil, avoiding their erosion. We conserve our water sources using the farm's springs for cultivation, harvesting and post-harvest handling. The coffee varieties we grow are Yellow Catuai, Pacamara, Geischa and Parainema. Harvesting is done by hand, primarily cutting only ripe grains. The honey process to which we dedicate ourselves, allows us not to contaminate the water of the streams since we do not use water in the process of pulping and washing the coffee. We have a solar dryer which allows us a slow and consistent drying. I am very happy to have qualified for the first time in the international electronic auction to publicize our work and effort to obtain high-quality coffee and I am very grateful to Cup of Excellence Honduras and IHCAFE for allowing us that window to publicize our project