CSA in Honduras

CSA stands for community supported agriculture. I'm sure many of you know by now what a CSA is, but for those of you who don't, a CSA is when a community members pay a local farmer a set amount of money per week, and they get a basket of all the fresh veggies that they have available for that week. So for instance, one week, someone could get a bushel of green beans, 5 tomatoes, 10 carrots, 2 ounces of basil, and 1 head of lettuce. But another week, they could get 2 green peppers, 1 head of lettuce, 10 tomatoes and 2 carrots depending on the amount of harvest that week. But no matter what, they always pay the same thing, so it doesn't get confusing or too complicated. It is really cool, and a good way especially to help support local farmers.

Well, this idea was presented to my director by the wife of a UN worker living in Honduras. She says that it's really hard to find good, organic fruits and vegetables here in Honduras, so she has been looking elsewhere. Well, the farmers of my cooperative produce an ungodly amount of vegetables. So many, that especially during mango season, there is just tons of fruit rotting on the ground, because it's too much for people to eat.

So I met with her this week, and am very excited with the results. She was telling me that she knows enough people in Honduras (mostly foriegners) who are more than willing to pay a higher price for organic fruits, as well as pay for transportation to get it up to Tegucigulpa and delivered to their doors weekly.

This is a great opportunity for the cooperative, because it with reliable clients, at a good and fixed price, and it will get them used to the idea of selling to a client regularly. And from there, hopefully we can broaden our horizons.