Women Producers
There are few places where the “gender gap” is bigger than on the coffee farm.
In an attempt to recognize and promote the work women do growing and producing coffees around the world, we have developed—and seek to expand—a roster of coffees that empower women along the global coffee supply chain by helping to create equity, visibility, and access to a wider market.
The Research Alliance of the International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA) is currently working to remedy the gender inequity with “a three phase project to identify the number of women working in coffee and their unique roles… This data is critical to identify the most effective courses of action for programs, policies, and other interventions to secure the future and sustainability of the coffee industry.”
CONSIDER THIS
Context is important; keep in mind the fact that women’s labour, sexual discrimination, and harassment often go under-reported; and the difficulties of measuring and corroborating information.
Women are highly present in fieldwork, harvest, and sorting – the manual work required to produce coffee. However, they were less represented in trading, exporting, and analysis or lab work: they were laborers, not decision-makers or business owners. Additionally, few women owned land or businesses.
Plus just imagine all the women that work on the demand side of the industry; roasters, baristas, fulfillment, management – the list goes on.
Meet our Women Producers
Our coffees are available depending on the season and harvest schedule. These are our current offerings – bookmark this page – part of our mission includes focusing on women producers.
Lurdes Duque
FINCA BRASIL, ARBELÁEZ, COLOMBIA
Finca Brasil is located in Arbeláez, in the Cundinamarca department of Colombia and is an exclusive partner of Wellborn Coffee. The farm is managed by the Duque family with Lurdes at the helm of coffee production, she runs a biodynamic and organic production approach. We partner with her farm directly. Her small team of pickers harvest the beans, process them on the farm, bag them up and then drive them to Bogota’s El Dorado airport and put them on direct flights to JFK. We pick up the beans the next day. Farm to cup, for real. You will not get closer to the farm on any of our other offerings.
La Morena
WOMEN PRODUCER COLLECTIVE, HUEHUETENANGO, GUATEMALA
We discovered this coffee from one of our importers, Genuine Origin. Genuine Origin started the La Morena program in 2016 with Volcafe Guatemala, its sister company in Guatemala as a platform to showcase the work of women farmers across Guatemala. The first lot featured coffee from four producers in 32 boxes (roughly - 2,000 lbs). Four years later, they import a full container (over 40,000 lbs) of La Morena featuring coffee from 23 woman-owned farms. A portion of this coffee supports the International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA).
Mayan Harvest Women's Group
CHIAPAS, MEXICO
This group is comprised of 168 family-owned farms located in communities within the municipality of Bella Vista in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. Rosalba Cifuentes Tovia, who was raised in the Bella Vista coffee community, has dedicated herself to helping producers with small plots of land (averaging 5 acres) earn a better price for their coffee. Rosalba ensures traceability for her communities coffee by personally exporting the coffee directly to the states. This is the first year that the Mayan Harvest Women’s Group has exported coffee.
Koperasi Pedagang Kopi Ketiara
ACEH, NORTHERN SUMATRA
The Koperasi Pedagang Kopi Ketiara is a women-run cooperative that has over 890 grower-members. The Ketiara Cooperative was started in 2008 by Ibu Rahmah, the current chairwoman, who had operated and managed her family’s coffee business for 20 years-purchasing cherries, processing the green, and selling to local traders. The cooperative members voted to become Organic and Fair Trade certified in 2012.