In the 1890s Honduran coffee was a small business with many small plantations and poor roads to the coast. Little was exported.
Today Honduras is the largest coffee exporter in Central America and the eighth-largest in the world. Coffee is grown in 15 of its 18 departments, mostly at 1,000–1,600 metres.
In 2005 the town of Marcala received the first legally recognised coffee denomination of origin in Honduras and Central America.
Field notes
What the record says
- In 1894 Honduras produced an estimated 20,000 quintals of coffee, and only about 10% was exported.3
- Early coffee exports left from Amapala on the Pacific and Puerto Cortés on the Caribbean.3
- Honduras became Central America's top coffee producer in 2011.3
- Café Marcala was granted on 18 November 2005 at the request of the Marcala coffee producers' association (ADOPCAM). It was the first legally recognised denomination of origin in Honduras and Central America.2
- USDA forecast Honduran output for 2025/26 at 5.8 million 60-kg bags, all of it arabica.1
- Honduras is the eighth-largest coffee exporter in the world and the largest in Central America.1
- The national coffee institute IHCAFE's replanting programme has reached about 33,000 producers.1
What we couldn't confirm
Honduras was thinly covered. There was no strong history source beyond the Wikipedia overview, and no drinking ritual was found. Global rank varies by source and year. The USDA report itself was not opened; figures come from Daily Coffee News's summary of it. The Marcala source is a law firm's article.
Sources
- Honduras Coffee Report: Exports Surge on Rising Prices, Reduced Rust Impact · Daily Coffee News, 2025 in the bibliography
- Denomination of Origin in Honduras · García & Bodán, 2018 in the bibliography
- Coffee production in Honduras · Wikipedia in the bibliography
