It was during the 1960s that Sara Victoria Vásquez’s grandfather planted the seeds of a three-generational family business in the small Honduran municipality of San José, La Paz. When the farm later passed from Sara’s father to her, she faced a new challenge that neither of them had.
As a woman entrepreneur in a country where formal employment, access to credit, and training opportunities for women in rural communities are often scarce, Sara’s economic opportunities felt limited before they had a chance to grow. Climate pressures in the Dry Corridor of Honduras also made coffee farming more difficult, and even for growers who produced good coffee, standing out in a global market required knowing what international buyers actually wanted and how to reach them.
“I was scared because I didn’t have the necessary knowledge to take on such a big responsibility,” Sara shares. The family farm was hers, but the market was a whole new challenge.
There was a personal dimension, too. A difficult divorce made remaining in San José feel impossible. Sara was three days from buying a plane ticket to Spain when her phone rang.
The German importer she had been supplying coffee to had a problem, and a proposition. The person helping her prepare coffee for export had fallen through, and she asked if Sara would stay in Honduras to help her build a solution instead.
Sara almost didn’t stay. But she felt a responsibility to capitalize on the opportunity.
“I believe God put AGROCAFÉ in my hands,” says Sara. “And just as I have been blessed, I want to share those blessings with all the women and people who want to be part of AGROCAFÉ.”
The coffee-exporting business she built from that decision now employs 20 permanent staff and 70 seasonal workers, exports to international buyers, and has become, as one of its workers puts it, “a very important company here in the municipality.” However, it has been a journey with many partners for Sara to take AGROCAFÉ to where it is today.
Starting from the market
Honduras is a significant coffee-producing country globally, which means standing out requires more than ambition. When the German importer, Meámbar Premium Coffee, proposed the export venture, Sara needed a clear understanding of what international buyers actually wanted, and the business skills to deliver it.
That was when Sara started her engagement with MEDA’s Opportunities for Circular and Inclusive Diversification in Agriculture (OCIDA) project, implemented with a group of partners and support from Global Affairs Canada.
Many smallholder support programs transfer knowledge or inputs, and hope market access follows. OCIDA takes a different approach by starting from existing or reachable market demand, then building the business and producer capabilities needed to meet it. For Sara, that meant the training she received through MEDA’s implementing partner, Alterna, was linked directly to conversations she was already having with buyers.
The pitch training was the most impactful for Sara. “I talk about coffee,” she remembers admitting during the process, “but my coffee doesn’t really have anything unique.” Identifying what differentiated AGROCAFÉ’s product and learning to communicate it is what Alterna’s business cultivation process was designed to surface.
“I learned how to give pitches and speak more effectively, how to market my product well,” Sara says.
The financial literacy component of OCIDA’s training translated directly into better outcomes for the producers she sources from. By understanding her own margins and cost structures, Sara could offer producers in Intibucá and La Paz a direct market, transparent pricing, and honest feedback on the quality of their coffee.
“Through all the training I received from OCIDA, I learned how to improve the financial side of my business so that I could better support the producers. By offering them a direct market, they can also learn about their coffee, understand its quality, and get a better price,” Sara explains.
When the commercial position of AGROCAFÉ strengthens, it creates leverage for producers upstream who previously lacked this.
What wages do on a Saturday
The economics of AGROCAFÉ are most clearly on display during Saturday mornings in La Paz, when Sara pays her workers. Vendors arrive at the warehouse selling bread and tamales, drawn by the small pulse of wages moving through the neighbourhood.
Olivia Dalí García Lorenzo, a community organizer and mother, is one of these workers. She came to AGROCAFÉ after her husband noticed a sign-up notice. “He told me, ‘Look, they’re signing people up to pick coffee. If you want, go earn some extra money, it’s yours.’”
Olivia has noticed that the local economy operates differently now. “From here, all of us women who earn money also contribute to the community and the municipality by shopping, going to businesses, and supporting the people who sell. The money doesn’t just stay here anymore.”
This is a community, Sara notes, where formal employment for women had been essentially nonexistent before. AGROCAFÉ offers employment designed around the realities of the women doing it. Workers can step away to check on a child, then come back. That flexibility allows Sara to retain workers and build a stronger business.
“AGROCAFÉ is a company that creates a lot of jobs for women who like to take on work and help support their households, and also to help single mothers who depend on themselves and have children in school,” Olivia says.
Built with a legacy in mind
The answer to whether Sara could carry her grandfather’s legacy forward now includes organic certification achieved through the OCIDA project’s support, reforestation with fruit and timber trees to protect local water sources, and a long-term view of climate resilience that is increasingly pressing in Honduras’s Dry Corridor. These changes mean that Sara is building a business that can viably be handed on to the next generation.
The most concrete next chapter for AGROCAFÉ is a tasting room, recently selected for smart-incentive funding through OCIDA as one of seven companies chosen from 31 applicants. Right now, when Sara collects coffee samples from producers in Intibucá and La Paz, she has to book time at an outside lab and wait for a slot. That delay costs producers the timely quality feedback they need to improve and price their coffee accurately.
“The tasting room is going to be a huge help for the municipality, for AGROCAFÉ, and for all the producers who work with us,” she shares.
Olivia too can already see what it means for the community around it. “There will be more job opportunities because we’ll have professionals like coffee cuppers, more women entrepreneurs, and more training,” she notes.
Markets as a mechanism
Sara’s AGROCAFÉ journey reflects her resilience and perseverance. It also shows the power of market-driven development models like those used by MEDA’s OCIDA project.
Sara had a legacy of knowledge of both the land and the product she was producing, and market connection and business skills combined allowed her to make that knowledge commercially actionable. Her pitch connected with a real buyer already in the room, her financial literacy was tied to an actual offer, and her organic certification matched a market willing to pay for it.
OCIDA’s market-driven approach has supported Sara to build a more resilient business, for herself and for other women in San José, La Paz. Through this success, the Saturday bread and tamale vendors continue to show up because wages are moving, and money, as Olivia says, doesn’t just stay here anymore.
Opportunities for Circular and Inclusive Diversification in Agriculture (OCIDA) is a five-year project implemented by MEDA and supported by Global Affairs Canada from 2024-2029. It aims to enhance market systems for smallholder coffee and cacao farmers in the Dry Corridor of Honduras, creating or improving job opportunities for at least 5,250 women and youth and sustaining at least 1,750 existing jobs. Learn more.
