Supercharged, solar-dried beans help farmers earn more

Soggy coffee beans are no good to anyone (apart from insect pests and mildew, that is). Which is why NESCAFÉ  agronomists are encouraging our partner farmers in Honduras to take matters into their own hands and dry their coffee beans on their farms, instead of paying someone else to do it. 

We’ve been encouraging them to adopt a smart solution – solar coffee bean dryers. They might sound complex, but they’re brilliantly simple. Most farmers can make one in their back yard using our design and inexpensive, locally-sourced materials. Think of it like a wood-framed greenhouse, but with plastic sheeting instead of glass.

Once built, it costs nothing to run (the sweltering Central American sun takes care of the drying business) yet it means our partner farmers can get more cash for their new supercharged, super-dry, better-quality beans. And, because dry beans keep for longer, farmers are in a better negotiating position. They can decide for themselves exactly when’s the best time to sell – and start to drive a hard bargain!

In the downtime, ingenious coffee-growing families have also been known to use their solar dryers to dry clothes, ripen bananas and lots of other farming tricks. Who’d have thought that our quest for a better-quality bean would be such a big hit with the whole family?

But the biggest advantage is for you, because better-quality beans mean better-flavoured NESCAFÉ coffee. And we know you’ll be able to taste the sunshine in every cup.