Irma García (APROCOMSA FLO ID 48213)

Finca El Suyapal
Producer: Irma Alicia García Martinez
Altitude: 1,615 MASL
Variety: Lempira, Icatú
Processing: Washed
Harvest: December to March
Location: Las Marías, Cabañas

Producer History
My name is Irma. I am a smallholder farmer that made the decision to start growing coffee in 2012. I saw that most of my family were devoting themselves to coffee and I figured that I should also own my own coffee farm. So, I started my own farm, thanks to the support of my family and of God.

By the 2015/2016 harvest, I was harvesting my first coffee cherries. The following harvest, I joined COMSA and began to turn in my coffee cherries at the central wet processing facility. It wasn't until 2018, with the support of COMSA and trainers, I learned how to process coffees myself. I liked doing it myself because I was adding value to my production. I also realized that turning in coffee cherry to the wet mill was more expensive as I needed to incur the transportation costs of bringing wet cherry to the facility. 

At COMSA we have learned that producing coffee is not about quantity but about quality. We have learned the importance of producing responsibly, to generate an income, but not at the expense of the environment. Today I have my farm where I can earn my money, but also recharge. Before I would go to work and see how the harvest was progressing, today I will go there to breathe fresh air. It is something I've learned, to produce with love.  

Washed Process
At Finca El Suyapal, harvesting is conducted according to the requirements set by COMSA , selecting solely cherries that are ripe and ensuring that no green, dry, damaged or over-ripe cherries have made it into the batch. Once harvested, the cherries are floated in water barrels to remove less-dense damaged beans. Floating the cherries also helps to hydrolyze the cherries. The coffee then proceeds to the depulper. Once depulped, it is piled in a fermentation tank. After 12-24 hours, the fermented coffee is washed with fresh water to be then dried on a raised bed solar drier for 10-15 days.