COMSA - Café Orgánico Marcala

café orgánico marcala s.a. (comsa) is a farmer-owned cooperative founded in 2001 in marcala, la paz, honduras, growing out of an initiative by the rural business development foundation (funder). sixty founding members pooled roughly 300 usd in social capital with the aim of exporting their own production directly and moving away from sales to local middlemen at below-cost prices. the cooperative now has 1,573 smallholder members, around 25% of whom are women, each farming an average of 3.7 hectares at elevations between 1,300 and 1,500 meters above sea level. comsa shifted its membership from conventional chemical inputs to certified organic agroforestry systems, and after the coffee leaf rust crisis replaced older varieties such as catuai, pacas, and caturra with rust-resistant varieties including parainema, lempira, and ihcafe 90. processing includes washed, natural, and honey methods. the cooperative holds organic, fair trade, spp, and denomination of origin marcala certifications. comsa has placed members in the cup of excellence and runs a technical assistance team that supports individual farm-level practices, including a cool farm tool carbon sequestration pilot across 45 member farms.