Drinking coffee is great. Knowing what you're drinking and where it's coming from is even better. Today, we're highlighting one of our newest beans from Honduras, that makes up our Plum Beach coffee.
The Cafe Organico Marcala (COMSA) was founded back in December of 2001. The cooperative's vision was to create new alternative development opportunities for small-scale coffee farmers in the region of Marcala, Honduras.
At the time of its foundation, coffee's predominant production in the region was from conventional practices and sold at prices that didn't cover the farmers' costs. COMSA's goal was to not only find new ways of producing the coffee in a more organic way but also to move from commercial buying to more specialty purchasing.
Transitioning from conventional chemical production to organic practices was no easy feat, and caused dramatic drops in production yields. But after forming a strategic alliance with the Corporacion Educative para el Desarroloo Costarricense, COMSA was able to help its members learn new and innovative practices to transform their lands into integrated organic farms.
COMSA is invested in social and environmental welfare, offering a wide range of resources and training to producers on organic farming matters while also running an international school dedicated to training children to be future leaders in the community.
The particular bean we had purchased for our Plum Beach coffee comes from a lot made up of 15 farms that are Fair Trade Organic certified and all owned by woman member-producers.
You can learn more about COMSA and its mission, goals, and social responsibility vision for the future by visiting www.comsa.hn
Sources: Bellwether, Cooperative Coffees,