CABEI and International Coffee Organization to work together to mitigate climate disasters and COVID-19 effects in Honduras and Nicaragua

London, February 17th, 2022 –. As part of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) mission to the United Kingdom, this Thursday the Executive President of the multilateral, Dr. Dante Mossi, held a meeting with the Executive Director of the International Coffee Organization (ICO), José Sette, and the Ambassadors of Honduras and Nicaragua in that country, Iván Romero, and Guisell Moral, respectively.

During the meeting, the two organizations discussed the joint work of both entities to promote initiatives that will serve as a basis for developing, financing, and implementing programs to assist the two beneficiary countries to contribute to the sustainable and inclusive recovery of coffee production.

"We are very pleased to join concrete efforts with a world-renowned partner such as ICO, since with the application of the actions to be implemented both Nicaragua and Honduras will be able to raise their quality standards in the coffee value chain, and thus improve the technical competence and sustainability of the sector," said Mossi.

The unprecedented social and economic impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic affected people's living conditions, global economies, and supply chains. In addition, Honduras and Nicaragua faced two dramatic natural disasters in 2020 with hurricanes that hit their lands and affected their coffee producing areas, exacerbating the economic and humanitarian crisis.

ICO therefore called on its partners to help rebuild resilience and promote recovery in the Central American region and engaged with CABEI to finance a comprehensive assessment of the impact of climate-related shocks in these countries, as well as to help design a program to address the challenges and take advantage of existing opportunities to build a resilient and inclusive coffee sector.