Fidel Caballero owns the cheese plant Lácteos Palmares and is one of many artisan cheese producers in Honduras who struggled to provide quality products for local and international markets. Although his plant has been around for more than 40 years and is considered a pioneer in cheese production, it has grown slowly due to poor infrastructure, equipment, expertise and marketing.
Since 1992, the population of Villanueva, a city located about 10 miles from Honduras' industrial capital San Pedro Sula, has doubled. The number of people migrating from rural to urban areas to work at manufacturing plants has increased substantially over the same period and spurred most of Villanueva's growth. Without a long-term growth and development plan, within the next 15 years, Villanueva could become a chaotic city of people demanding services that the municipality cannot provide. Improving access to potable water and sanitation services is critical to Villanueva's development.
In the Taulabe, Comayagua region of Honduras, small sugar processors make a product called rapadura - a hard brown sugar that is sold in the local market. Traditionally, sugar cane processors had burned firewood as their primary source of fuel - however, firewood was becoming increasingly scarce. Processors shifted to the burning of old tires for fuel, causing environmental pollution, a low quality product, and serious health hazards to those who tend the fires and nearby communities.
Luis Flores was a sales manager for a small produce distributor in La Esperanza, a rural town in the highlands of central Honduras. Through this experience, he became aware of the market demands and requirements in the major Honduran cities of San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa.
Hurricane Mitch caused severe damage and killed thousands of Hondurans in October 1998. The government was unprepared for the intense rains, catastrophic flooding, and mudslides caused by the category five hurricane. There was a critical vacuum in the country’s disaster response and preparedness capacities.
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