Mayra Orellana-Powell in Conversation
Updates on Catracha Coffee Company
Mayra Orellana-Powell founded Catracha Coffee Company to link specialty buyers to the farmers in her home community of Santa Elena, Honduras. Such a premise sounds straightforward, but over the course of a decade, Catracha has evolved into a multifaceted organization, becoming a nonprofit, an export business, and a vibrant community center. Mayra and Lowell, her business partner and husband, recognized that for farmers to earn more, they needed to improve coffee quality. To do this, farmers need access to trusted mentorship and farm equipment. But above all, farmers need evidence that adopting new practices is worth the considerable effort.
Catracha embodies a holistic approach to economic empowerment that leaves no one out. In a town like Santa Elena, where it is based, this inclusive model helps people to not just subsist in the present, but to build a more secure future.
We work with so many producers who inspire us, but Catracha’s ethos of caring is cause for deep admiration. We were thrilled to talk with Mayra on the challenges of 2020 and the aspects of her work that keep her motivated.
It was such a tough year in 2020. How is the Catracha community doing?
We are doing well and our community in Santa Elena is healthy. With all the stresses placed on communities in 2020, we have been very fortunate. We are proud to live in a community that has shown so much resilience during the past year.
How has the pandemic affected Catracha’s farmers and your ability to market and export coffee?
Honduras mostly shut down in late March of 2020. Fortunately, everyone had just finished harvesting coffee, and the coffee that we had purchased was already safely in our warehouse. But selling this coffee presented a very scary moment. We really thought we might go out of business.
When we reached out to the roasters we have worked with over the years, it was amazing how many were committed to buying coffee like every other year—despite their own uncertainty for what the remainder of 2020 would bring. It was a huge relief when Shaun at Blue Bottle reached out, confirming the plan to purchase from the same group of Catracha producers, like every other year. It really showed us how committed everyone was to working with Catracha.
Sadly, some roasters went out of business, and we had to sell some coffee in Honduras. But we survived, and most importantly, we were able to pay profits to producers in August, just like we have done every year since we started in 2012.
What have you all had to do to adapt?
Covid-19 created many limitations on travel—even within Honduras. We had to look inward when things like vegetables grown or shipped in from other towns didn’t make it to our markets. People turned to their own land and planted family gardens to produce what they could no longer buy. For Lowell and me, it was a real comfort to work in the garden and tend to the coffee farm.
The two hurricanes that hit Honduras made most roads impassable during the month of November in 2020, but again we had safe shelter in our homes and in our community. All the rain caused the coffee harvest to be delayed for about a month, but the damage was not severe. Other parts of Honduras had terrible flooding and landslides that continue to cause a great deal of suffering. The environment of Santa Elena protected us this year. I hope that as a community we show our gratitude, continuing to protect the forests and fertile land we are blessed with.
It is March, Women’s History Month in the U.S. The word catracha means “Honduran woman” in the local patois. How does Catracha Coffee Company’s work forward gender equity?
Women, or anyone for that matter, must have strong self-esteem to succeed. When Catracha, a women-run organization succeeds, and all of the women involved succeed, including my mother, myself, Doris [a farmer], and others, we are collectively showing other women that they can succeed too.
How does your focus on craft and art classes fit in with your vision to support your community?
Craft and art is a way to express creativity, and it is also a way to build self-esteem. There are many women in Santa Elena who do embroidery. It’s a great way for them to show their talent while earning a little extra money, gaining more freedom to purchase what they like. Young people are also attracted to craft and art. Their interest gives them a good way to connect and spend time with loving and supportive adults.
A while ago we featured Doris Benitez's coffee as a single origin, and this year’s Community Blend includes her coffee too. Her story of co-owning her farm with her husband Mateo is an inspiring example of gender parity. She also learned about organic farming from her father, long before it was so mainstream. How is she doing?
Doris, Mateo, and their son Henry are doing well. Like many of us, they have turned to their farm to find comfort. All of the pickers at Doris's farm are also women. At the end of each week, they stop work early to make lunch together.
Recently, we formed a small credit union (Caja Rural) to give Catracha producers access to credit during the harvest, and Doris is the president. She is another example of how women are leaders in our community.
This year’s featured single origin was producer Denis Marquez’s delicious honey-processed coffee. Why does Catracha focus on alternative processing methods?
Denis is young and excited about coffee, which is not the norm in many coffee communities, where many farmers are older and more set in their ways. Giving him the challenge to innovate taps into his energy, motivating him to be a model for the rest of us. For Denis, honey processing [link] was not so different from the more typical wet processing we do. After fermenting the coffee, he just skips the washing process, sending the coffee straight to the drying bed. Doing this solves a big problem: it takes a lot of water to wash coffee, water that many farmers don't have. If you skip washing the coffee, you don't have a water problem to solve.
This year, Denis's uncle Gaspar, who has been working with Blue Bottle for a few years and introduced Denis to Catracha, is learning honey processing with Denis's help. This is the power of young people taking risks. When they succeed, they help others innovate.
Coffee is an international industry born out of the exploitation of people of color and women. What are concrete steps the specialty coffee industry can take to do more? What would you like coffee drinkers in the US to consider when buying coffee?
The industry needs to pay producers more for coffee. This is simple on its face, but in many supply chain models, it is still hard to know what percentage of the purchase price of green coffee reaches the producer. If a consumer doesn’t have access to seeing who produced the coffee, it is likely because the quality of life for that producer is so impoverished. The consumer would not feel good drinking the coffee if they had full knowledge. In other words, if a consumer doesn’t want to support exploitation, they need to know where a coffee comes from.
What has inspired you this year?
Children inspire me to keep going. They are not afraid and are willing to try new experiences. They keep me motivated to learn and create new experiences for our rural community.
What do you have planned for the future?
More of the Catracha producers working with Blue Bottle are honey processing their coffee this year. We hope to have a large enough lot for release in Blue Bottle cafes throughout the world. For me, on a personal level, I want to spend as much time as possible with the children of Santa Elena, exploring the rivers and forests that are right here in our community.
Kids attending one of Catracha’s art and crafts workshop