El Cedron – Honduras

Filander Hernandez has never been a stranger to life on the farm. Growing up, he would spend all free time working on the family farm, with school being the only place to get a bit of rest, and after graduating, Filander was convinced he did not want to become a farmer. But in 1998, while working for an NGO, Filander decided to take ownership of a deforested piece of land, which at that time, was barren and only being used to produce basic grains. Two years later, Filander was beginning his first coffee nursery with 3,000 seedlings and timber trees, setting the stage for what was to become a full-fledged coffee farm. But the road ahead was full of hard work and uncertainty as to whether or not the farm would succeed.

In 2021 Filander lost half of his harvest to plant disease, but this setback pushed him to innovate. He experimented with planting different coffee varieties that are more disease resistant, along with planting hardwood trees to improve the health of the plants. These trees not only provide valuable shade to the growing coffee, they also aid the environmental sustainability of the farm by improving resilience and biodiversity. Now, native birds and other fauna are even returning to the area.

With years of hard work, Filander finally made his first specialty coffee sale in 2023, giving motivation to keep growing and improving the farm with the goal of cup quality, traceability, and sustainability.