Devouring profit - International Coffee Organization

case reduction for quality is smaller than arabica (US$0.08/pound). Hence another
preliminary conclusion is that prices depend far too much on the various interests of
the many intermediaries involved in this process. In broad terms, ultimately Ecuadorian
farmers are risk takers because there are no measures in place to protect their
income.
2.3 Honduras
Two meetings were carried out and each of them detected different problems, which
are analysed independently.
Agua de Piedra farmers
This group was from the small town of San Luis. They were asked about their main
problems as coffee producers. Table 7 shows their choices.
Table 7. Main problems in coffee production, Agua de
Piedra region.
The main two difficulties were commercialisation and low coffee prices, which confirmed
what local extensionists had told us. Again CBB is not regarded as a main
problem in coffee production. But it was evident that farmers think that poor commercialisation
and low prices are negatively affecting crop management. Hence from
this lack of management we expect increased CBB attacks in the future and in this
way increased losses and poorer quality.
El Tigre coffee farmers
This group of farmers is near to Lake Yojoa, an important coffee zone. Table 8 summarises
the perspectives of this group on coffee production.
Table 8. Main problems in coffee production,
El Tigre region.
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