Honduras

The coffee has gentle fruit aromas, smooth, syrupy body, with chocolate, biscuit and dark marmalade flavour and a dryish finish

Co-operative: Café Orgánico Marcala S.A. (COMSA) Region: Marcala Number of Producers: 1573 (25% Women)
Certifications FLO, SPP
Processing Method: Washed Varieties: Catimor, Catuai , Lempira, Pacas
Elevation 1200 -1600 MASL

COMSA was founded in 2001 by 69 farmers who were seeking ways to make their coffee growing businesses profitable. At the time coffee in was largely grown in a conventional manner using chemical inputs to support production, volumes were large, quality and prices were low and most coffee went into the ‘commercial’ markets – farmers often could not cover the costs of production. COMSA set out to encourage quality and organic, chemical free agriculture, and over time they have built their volumes and their quality and now the 1200 members produce specialty grade organic coffee and own their own warehouses and processing plant. The group is very focussed on social development as well as the agricultural; they have a primary school and run organic education courses for farmers from other parts of the country and region.