Case Study

Origin Issue Assessment: Honduras Coffee

The Rainforest Alliance develops Origin Issue Assessments (OIAs) as part of the JDE Common Grounds program. This OIA flags the following as pressing risks in the Honduran coffee sector: occupational health and safety, climate smart agriculture, and child labor.

Coffee production in Honduras can be coupled to high-risk conditions since protective equipment when spraying agrochemicals is not commonly distributed and training on safe working conditions are rare. Mountainous terrain limits the coffee soils’ water holding capacity and facilitates erosion, only to be exacerbated by climate change. On most tracts of land, farmers are compelled to adopt comprehensive adaptation measures, although their capacity to do so remains limited. Too many child labor cases are identified in the agriculture and coffee industry; children working on coffee farms comes at the expense of their schooling, an issue also witnessed with migratory workers from Guatemala and Nicaragua.