Sassy - Producer Info Celia

Celia Portillo's journey is closely tied to Jesús Galeas, a family member and field technician (IHCAFE) who has helped local smallholders in the Montecillos range improve post-harvest quality and yields. With his support, Celia, now 59, shifted from the traditional model of selling cherry/de-pulped coffee to intermediaries and embraced careful fermentation and controlled drying.

Coffee runs deep in Celia’s community. Her husband, Clementino Ramírez, is the brother of Antonio Ramírez, regarded as the first to cultivate coffee commercially in the area (Typica and Bourbon in the 1980s). For decades, the family sold coffee by mule in Comayagua for whatever price buyers offered. Today, Celia’s commitment to processing quality and separating lots is opening better markets and prices:

“Coffee growing is my family’s heritage… Now I have the opportunity to sell my coffee as specialty and to use the profits from this sale to improve my living situation and to better care for my farm.”

This year, Semilla purchased Celia and her family’s entire production, both micro-lots and a larger blended lot, as part of a commitment to pay differentiated prices across the full harvest.