Interview with Katia Duke (English)

Hi Katia! Can you introduce yourself for us?

Hello, greetings from Honduras! My name is Katia Duke, I’m a Socio Economic and Environmental Development Engineer, a specialty coffee producer, cupper, roaster, and barista. I have a special, focused interest in the themes of empowerment of women, women and climate change, as in the visibility of their work, improving the quality of life and eradication of poverty through initiatives that promote the chain of value as a medium to access specialty markets. At the moment I am the coordinator of the sub-chapter in Copán of the International Women’s Coffee Alliance, by means of which we intend to have a larger reach when it comes to topics referring to sustainability, traceability, and public policies that look out for the wellbeing of women in the coffee sector. 

Describe your history in coffee. How did you start? How did you learn to do what you do?

My history in coffee is a hereditary love, that was lulled by the aroma of ripe cherry in the plots of coffee. I grew up being part of the system of production and I represent a fourth-generation of a coffee-producing family. I decided to study agriculture because of my conviction and also as an act of rebellion in order to prove that we women can venture into this type of profession that comes with a masculine label. 

After finishing my university studies, like all young people with dreams, I went back to my city and integrated into the traditional model of family. However, it was easy to note that we needed to make improvements, innovate, plan ahead with a design and management plan that will guarantee us sustainability. On the other hand the effects of climate change were making their own plans to facilitate the propagation of La Roya and in less than no time we had 70% of our plantation completely destroyed (La Roya is a bad thing which we have learned to live with, it’s a question of discipline on the farm). We depended completely on the prices of the market and that was my truthful initiation to what I do, after a heated discussion with a coyote (middle man) I vowed that that never again in my life no one would tell me that my coffee wasn’t of a quality to obtain better prices. Between sessions at the cupping school, I simultaneously took on other certifications like roasting, barista, among others, and now I’m capable of selecting my lots and, with total ownership, enter the negotiating table without a single fear of what I’m offering. 

About work on the farm I’m going to say that it’s all been learning by doing, full of hands of earth, documenting, validating, and always having a spirit of innovation, that last one is an attitude that foreign coffee buyers have appreciated.  

I learned that attention to details like any other thing in life was fundamental and if I intended to come to the international market of fine coffees, I needed to specialize myself, maximize my resources and create a value proposal about my product to form a solid relationship with our commercial partners abroad, and lastly to gain visibility for myself, and this last point has been fundamental, I owe a lot in this respect to my clients. 

My love for coffee is genuine, I grow even more when I can generate a positive impact in my community or when I can serve as inspiration for someone else. 

What do you think are the most important problems affecting coffee producers? 

An unhealthy combination of variables exists. To put it in context: 

For Honduras, the production of coffee represents 1,000,000 direct and indirect jobs in a population of 9,000,000 inhabitants, which means that 1 in 9 Hondurans depends on the field, even with the significant statistics that the field of coffee presents an enormous gap in the distribution of wealth that it generates along the supply chain. 

On the other hand the declared levels of social investments don’t correspond to the number of Hondurans submerged in poverty, that number looks worse in the very agricultural, rural areas. 

Public policies that protect and propel women as leaders of productive  agricultural systems. .

From the macro going to the micro: 

• Smallholder producers of coffee are subsistence producers, to think about exportation is to extend the period of time for the return of their investment

• The majority don’t keep records, they don’t have the least idea how much it costs them to produce their coffee, so they don’t have an idea of what’s a fair price to sell it, either 

• Access to new methodologies of processing is very low

• Access to land, male and female landowners 

• A lack of guaranteed access to finances so they can be utilized to improve their systems of production

What do you like about your work? About coffee? About your country?

It fascinates me how incredibly wide it is, each area is a universe, that there is so much science behind a cup of coffee is marvelous, that we can specialize in different areas, for example, in cupping, roasting, exportation, etc. It’s definitely a job that even though it’s part of the tropics and appears static, it isn’t, it prompts you to investigate, it’s extremely challenging and, finally, it’s a beautiful community of coffee on the global level. 

About my country, the theme of the production of coffee, I can say that I love the new generation of professionals in coffee, we see clearly the importance of curiosity and investigation, innovation and discipline. 

Honduras with its 6 regions of coffee production can only invite us to rethink the traditional model which we have exposed before the eyes of the world. We deserve to be seen with other eyes, we produce exceptional coffee and I can testify that the committed producing family year over year strains itself in order to present the best of their land. 

Describe your team in your job. Who do you work with? Who can you ask for help, support, or training? Are there female leaders in your company? 

Our family has passed from the production of conventional coffee to the production of specialty coffee. The empowerment of women has been fundamental in order to achieve this transformation, starting with me, I can’t intend to empower other women if I am not empowered and if I am not adequately aware of my role as a leader, nor can I be capable of forming new leaders within my system of production. 

The women of the community participate throughout the whole process, including the harvest, the washed processing, quality control, the manual selection of the best beans for exportation, an activity that we carried out on the farm as a means to extend the period of work for two more months, which translates to more income. 

Their passion and commitment permits our production of specialty coffees to reach a global level (we women are magical). 

On the other hand I have focused special attention in the empowerment of girls by means of education in order to break the patriarchal culture that submerges them in a merely reproductive plane of existence. 

It’s worth highlighting that, finally, what I’m looking for in my farm is the creation of diverse groups, with diversity of gender and all that comes with it. If not, we would not be capable of offering the beans that our collaborators help us to process. For me human capital is the most important resource, coffee is only a medium, coffee is a human history that’s worth telling.  

I am very curious and I’m always searching for more information, I like to check the suggestions of SCA, but CENICAFE, Colombia also shares really good information, IHCAFE offers constant information, but as I was mentioning, the greater part of the knowledge I have comes from learning and doing on my farm.

Who inspires you? 

My family, they are a clear example that work beats everything. 

They are the safe place when everything is upside down, my mom and dad a fountain of wisdom, now with my daughter I can say that she inspires me to leave a legacy. 

On the other hand, the kids of my community, I feel a moral commitment to generate better conditions of life for them, access to education that they can use to disrupt hereditary poverty.

How were you affected by the pandemic (personally and professionally)? And what’s the situation like right now? How is the situation in combination with the hurricane?

I think that in times of crisis the best friend you can have is a cup of coffee and that is also what a lot of other people think. Remember that coffee, as it is, is a commodity and for May of 2020, the prices of the market for conventional coffee were attractive. That wasn’t the case for specialty coffees that go to gourmet coffee shops: because of the pandemic they had to close operations, and the direct effect on our operations was the cancellation of orders, and other businesses considerably reduced the number of bags to purchase, leaving a high quantity of fine coffees in our warehouses that we had to re-allocate for the local market at a price below the cost of production. 

On the other hand, the governmental policies that regulated transit slowed down the flow of exportation, in turn, the implementation of the protocols of bio-security generated made the cost of logistics go up, it lowered the times of estimated arrivals, two months of delay in order for exportation to be accomplished. It brought us, as a result, an inevitable delay in the recuperation of our cash, in turn, our loan payments reflect an interest in arrears.  At the moment on the farm, we have adapted ourselves to the new normal that for the rural population with little schooling, isn’t easy to understand. 

Of all the tragedies affected by nature or the pandemic, what we have suffered in the country we can recover -- but of the corruption and the looting of the coffers of the state, all Hondurans have to pay, for the next 20 years at least. It’s pitiful that we are a generation in debt and that our children will inherit a balance that few of the actual government will be enjoying, so you can imagine, I don’t know what’s worse in those moments, to face the damage that mother earth brought us or the material damage that corruption and impunity left us. 

I have to emphasize that in the face of the aforementioned events, Hondurans have an empathetic answer that is worth highlighting: “Only the town can save the town” and that’s exactly why I have decided to make a call to the community of coffee in order to help with any means and encouragement. 

What gives you excitement to continue working in coffee?

As I expressed above, coffee for me is a genuine love, however it allows me to be a source of employment in my community, a true agent of change for future generations, and a source of income. It permits me to continue with the story of family, the traditions that we have created in the field, and maintain our identity. 

On the other hand, I believe that coffee is so noble and despite the ill treatment by climate change, a stingy market, and little available information in order to improve our practices as producers, I can say that the countryside of coffee production is the best laboratory that we could have. It motivates me voraciously when the results in the cup confirm to me my strengths -- innovation, intuition -- but above all the good energy of my collaborators that gives me a profile of an exceptional cup. 

What do you think about the industry of coffee in Honduras for women? To be a woman in your country? 

Women in Honduras represent 20% of the producers of coffee according to data from IHCAFE, but we are still poorly represented in positions of decision-making. This is a historic debt and the public policies continue without favoring us. It’s for this that I consider that memberships in organizations like the International Women’s Coffee Alliance allow us to be more visible and lift our voices. 

Gaining space for decision-making is still a challenge that is up to us to take, to break the traditional model that tells us what women can or can’t do, especially when we invest ourselves in essential agricultural activities like the production of coffee that prompt us to demonstrate constantly that we’re capable, that respect isn’t something that you should win, for example, “the man receives the respect that he deserves,” even when both of us are human beings alike. 

However, I want to highlight the Honduran women who have decided not to follow the traditional model that have managed to get through, to gain positions of high command like being CEO of big exporters, to win the Cup of Excellence like in the case of Lucinda Vasquez and Marysabel Caballero that broke the record of the price paid per pound besides. We also have Mary Portrillo bi-champion of the national barista competition and represented Honduras in WBC in Ireland, later we have owners of coffee companies of high impact like Doña Suyapa, and female producers who sell their beans directly to the international roaster, and the list can be even bigger. The present is female and when all the women who are in coffee take up the flag I am sure that many things are going to change now that the background is the multiplication of professionals in coffee who are of high impact in their communities. 

What are the challenges or successes in your life right now? 

Hahaha my challenge for 2020 is to get out with my life!!! :)

My challenges: 

• The implementation of the new protocols for bio-security in the farm and that our collaborates accept them

• That the markets of specialty coffee resume activity and demand increases

• To maintain the spirit of innovation despite these difficult times that we’re living

• Counting on a strategy for a Finca San Isidro that’s high impact and sustainable from 3 points of view, social, environmental, and economic

• To be an example that inspires my daughter

My successes: 

• Maintain a solid reputation in the market of differentiated coffee

• Direct relationships with roasters abroad

• The integrated programs for children because through them we can modify the effects of socioeconomic and gender inequity, some of the root causes of  poverty

• My business members have decided to support my social project to be the school and leading program of school snacks, they trust in my good stewardship of resources in order to achieve improvements in the quality of life of our people in the community

Are there any words you’d like to share with anyone reading in order to collaborate and support the people of your country during these difficult times with the hurricane? 

In order to change reality it’s necessary to take action! 

Hurricane ETA reached a category 4 on the 4th of November and hit my country and has had devastating impacts. 400,000 displaced people, more than 200 confirmed people dead and approx. 1,000 people have disappeared, to add to this Honduras is leading with Covid-19 cases and this week we are expecting another, new hurricane that has put us on red alert for the whole country. The projections indicate that Hurricane IOTA will arrive with much more force than Eta. In this world many things are happening at the same time but Honduras needs your support urgently.  

The most vulnerable people need immediate access to food, refuge, and medical attention. 

Funds from this fundraiser will be administered by the Rotary Club of San Pedro Sula, an organization that counts on a lot of experience and international prestige for its proper management of humanitarian projects, attending to needs in an organized and transparent way.