{"id":43144,"date":"2019-07-12T21:07:58","date_gmt":"2019-07-12T21:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cafeimports.com\/blog\/?p=43144"},"modified":"2019-07-15T16:04:35","modified_gmt":"2019-07-15T16:04:35","slug":"women-coffee-producers-trip-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/2019\/07\/12\/women-coffee-producers-trip-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Women Coffee Producers Trip 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The average farm in southern Colombia is less than 3 hectares in size but still requires countless hours of backbreaking work to manage. While it\u2019s hard enough to grow coffee under any conditions\u2014especially these days, with the global coffee market at historic lows and climate change affecting crops worldwide\u2014it\u2019s especially hard to be a woman coffee producer, period.<\/div>\n
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The Specialty Coffee Association of America has stated that in a study of 15 coffee-growing countries, \u201cwomen comprised an average of 70 percent of the workforce in the fieldwork and harvesting roles.\u201d That’s planting, pruning, picking, and processing. Despite their heavy participation in the farm labor, women represent less than 1 percent of the world\u2019s legal landowners: Many go unpaid or unrecognized as the caretakers on land owned by a father, brother, husband, or son who might be living, deceased, or frankly gone from sight. It\u2019s not for lack of interest or lack of passion for coffee: Many governments still don\u2019t recognize land ownership or transfer to women, many banks will not extend credit to women, and many cooperatives still will not recognize a woman as a member independent of a husband or father.<\/div>\n
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These startling facts are what has inspired the Cafe Imports Women Coffee Producers Program: Our green-coffee buyers seek out associations of women or subgroups of women within coed coffee-growers organizations, purchasing their 84\u201387-point lots separately with a gender-equity premium per pound above the quality premium we already pay for Regional Select\u2013quality coffee.<\/div>\n

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The project started with a cooperative in Guatemala called CODECH, and has expanded to nearly 10 associations in five countries: Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Indonesia. In the past five years, interest in and demand for coffees from the Women Coffee Producers has skyrocketed, which has allowed us to find other opportunities to combat the gender gap in coffee production. One new way we have found to engage directly with women in coffee-growing communities is in organizing and hosting a Resource trip specifically to connect women who are normally considered at \u201copposite\u201d ends of the supply chain: For the past two years, we have brought groups of non-male-identified roasters, green-coffee buyers, and baristas to meet and exchange ideas with the women of AMACA and ASMUCAFE, two strong associations of women in Cauca, Colombia. This year\u2019s group trip was led by Sam Miller, sourcing liaison for Cafe Imports, who has been traveling to Colombia for years in search of great coffee and strong relationships. Co-leading were women from various Cafe Imports offices: Cafe Imports Europe\u2019s Simone K\u00f6nig, Oxcart Coffee\u2019s Francine Ramirez, Cafe Imports Australia\u2019s Julie Kerr, and Cafe Imports North America\u2019s Nicole Good, as well as a handful of female roasters, a barista, and even a journalist from across the U.S.A., Europe, and Australia. (Resident Cafe Imports photographer Victor Pag\u00e1n capture the spirit as well.)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On the first full day in Cauca, the group visited with representatives of AMACA (Asociaci\u00f3n de Mujeres Productoras Agropecuarias del Cauca), which is the older of the organizations: It was founded in 1999 and currently has between 100 and 140 producer members who are delivering coffee cherry that the leadership considered good-enough quality to represent the work of the whole association.<\/div>\n
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\u201cI would join AMACA. They have a general pride about their coffee and the town that they\u2019re from, and that\u2019s something innately present in [many] associations, but AMACA has their own thing going in terms of where their pride comes from, and their own little culture in that,\u201d says Sam. \u201cBeing around them and spending time with them just feels great. You know how being around focused, good-hearted people feels good? That\u2019s how it is with them.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Green-buyer\u2019s associate Francine Ramirez was just as impressed with ASMUCAFE (Asociaci\u00f3n de Mujeres Agropecuarias de Uribe), with whom they spent the second full day of the tour: Francine visited both cooperatives on last year\u2019s trip, too, and remarked that ASMUCAFE has radically improved its quality focus even in the course of those 12 months.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt was amazing last year compared to this year,\u201d she says. \u201cI saw a screen sorter, and they have a humidity reader, and now they\u2019re doing studies for the samples for the members\u2014how much percentage of 100 grams is 14\/15 screen size, and so on. Members bring their own samples to the office at ASMUCAFE, and since they\u2019re bringing them in parchment they also now have a huller for samples. They read the humidity, and if it\u2019s not ready they say, \u2018Oh, it needs one more day at the patio,\u2019 or they make a recommendation. It\u2019s a huge improvement! It\u2019s amazing because I sense that the next step for them is to buy a sample roaster and start doing cuppings and tastings.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Cupping was one of the major focuses of this particular trip: Like many coffee growers worldwide, the women of AMACA and ASMUCAFE have had limited if any exposure to the cupping process, which is something our group set out to correct. Sam collaborated with Banexport\u2019s team of cuppers and warehouse managers to arrange an all-day cupping exercise that could be shared among the women producers and the roasters and baristas on the trip. About 20 members of ASMUCAFE and 25 from AMACA arrived to the Banexport warehouse and cupping labs in Popay\u00e1n, where they shared a meal and spent most of a day together learning and sharing. The group experienced several rounds of coffee cupping, including a demonstration for AMACA and ASMUCAFE to watch and learn the process; an opportunity to cup through both association\u2019s coffees; and a tasting of commonly found defects, which were offered in water-based solutions using sensory-analysis flavor tablets.<\/div>\n
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\u201cBasically they got to watch and observe a cupping, the whole thing all the way through to when we sat down and discussed the scores and the cupping notes in Spanish. We revealed them: \u2018This coffee is 86 points and it\u2019s from\u2026AMACA!\u2019 Everyone was proud and excited,\u201d Sam says.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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After the trip, Casey Lalonde, cofounder of Girls Who Grind Coffee, reflected that the cuppings seemed like a valuable exercise, but she says, \u201cI was a little surprised that it was the first time cupping for some of the growers.\u201d During the trip, she exchanged contact information with a few of the producers and asked them what they thought of the cupping. One of the farmers, Yeny, replied: \u201cBy trying the coffee flaws, we realized what we have to do to improve and pay more attention to our crops to provide a better cup of coffee. It is clear that it is not only the crops but the entire process that is done from the planting to the sale that can have an effect on the cup. It was very useful because trying and experiencing things makes it clearer.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Everyone we spoke with after the trip mentioned that perhaps the most powerful moment of the week they spent together was when the Cafe Imports group visitors took the time to stand up before the women coffee growers to introduce their companies, talk about the obstacles that they\u2019ve faced as women in specialty coffee, and to share their feelings as they looked out over the room of dedicated producers\u2014people as passionate about coffee as they are.<\/div>\n
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“We had at the same time a feeling of sorority,\u201d Francine says. \u201cFarmers and roasters sharing this great experience through coffee\u2014being able to know them, to know their realities for them. It was incredible.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Lisa Lawson, founder of Dear Green Coffee in Glasgow, Scotland, also felt the power: “Being a female business owner, I know of the hurdles of living and working in a man’s world without the added challenges of being in a developing country,” she says. “Daiba Miladay’s farm (La Cascada) story was incredible for me. She started her farm from nothing, received loans, and has ambitious yet achievable targets. Her husband sold his grandparents’ land to help fund her farm, and her father was heling to look after her children. Daiba said she ‘started from nothing and achieved a lot,’ and this really rung true with me as I have done the similar in a different part of the industry, in a different part of the world.”<\/div>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.7″ src=”\/\/cdn.cafeimports.com\/images\/Cafe_Imports_WCP-1-15.jpg” \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.7″ src=”\/\/cdn.cafeimports.com\/images\/cafeimportscolombiawomencoffeeproducers-19.jpg” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Benefits” _builder_version=”3.7″ text_orientation=”justified” text_font=”Raleway||||||||” text_font_size=”15px”]<\/p>\n

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The benefits of buying women-produced coffee through this and other programs have an incredible value beyond just the branding, and even beyond the flavor in the cup\u2013though we are lucky to work with such quality-driven growers. \u201cMy customers love it when I buy coffee that is produced by women and has a strong traceability,\u201d says Lucy Ward, head green-coffee buyer for St. Ali Roasters in Melbourne, Australia. \u201cI personally believe that investing in women invests in the future. This is simply because investing in women invests in the education of children, and, more indirectly, the surrounding community.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Click below for more information about the Women Coffee Producers Program and to browse our offerings of coffees that are purchased with a gender-equity premium. For another great blog post about the trip, head over to Dear Green for founder Lisa Lawson’s reflections from her time in Cauca: https:\/\/www.deargreencoffee.com\/blogs\/news\/colombia-field-notes-from-origin<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the past two years, we have hosted a Resource trip to visit some of the associations who participate in our Women Coffee Producers program, a coffee-sourcing project through which we buy coffee from co-ops comprised entirely of women, or subgroups of women who are members of coed associations.
\nThe coffees we buy from WCP participating women are given a gender-equity premium on top of their quality premium, as a way of attempting to bridge the pay and recognition gap that exists in most coffee-growing countries. Just a few weeks ago, our WCP trip went to Cauca, Colombia to visit AMACA and ASMUCAFE, and the experience was unforgettable for everyone. Click below to read a blog about the trip, featuring reflections from Cafe Imports staff as well as a few of the strong women roasters who came along.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":43146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombia"],"site_id":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}